HARMLESS @ NanoHarmony Workshop
Under the title “Towards harmonised test methods for nanomaterials”, the EU H2020 project NanoHarmony (NMBP-38) has the mission to support the development of Test Guidelines and Guidance documents for eight endpoints where nanomaterial-adapted test methods have been identified as a regulatory priority.
Under the title “Test Guideline/ Guidance Document: Determination of the dustiness of manufactured nanomaterials”, NanoHarmony organized on 24th November 2021 its 2nd Project Workshop to provide an update on the work being undertaken on the various OECD test guidelines and guidance documents. Several ongoing EU-wide OECD initiatives on the powder dustiness testing of several manufactured nanomaterials, including HARN (within the framework of NanoHarmony and presented by BAuA) and non-HARN (within the framework of Gov4Nano and presented by NRCWE) were presented. It was also an effort to gather inputs from different stakeholders on how they can contribute to the development or use of test guidelines. It further included the aspect of the reusability of the dustiness data for exposure modeling (presented by NRCWE) and improving explosive atmosphere (ATEX) safety approaches (presented by INERIS). Around 26 people participated in the workshop who come from different organization types which included service providers, regulatory authorities, industries, academia, ECHA, etc.
This workshop was interesting for HARMLESS, particularly for WP3 in which we are developing a set of NAMs on in-silico dustiness and exposure modeling for HARNs. Currently we find several gaps, among others, in the availability of HARN powder dustiness data as well as in our knowledge regarding the characterization of the handling energy of different standard dustiness tests (CEN 17199). Both factors are of critical importance for linking the standard dustiness tests with exposure-prone industrial powder handling operations to establish relevant exposure scenarios. The workshop was a ‘kick-off event’ for a long knowledge development process which will continue over the entire durations of NanoHarmony and Gov4Nano projects. HARMLESS will closely follow this development process for linking the dustiness aspects of those projects.
