risk assessment report

Nanotechnology Risk Management Plan

Written Report – Guidance Document

Due: Monday, NOV 27th @ 11:59pm

What is the hazard of concern?

Your risk assessment will center on the nanomaterial application you presented; also consider:

· Chemicals associated with the process?

· Impurities associated with the product?

Determine the boundaries of your risk assessment:

· Occupational risk

· Consumer risk

· Environmental risk

Who/What/Where is at risk?

· Individual

· General population

· Workers

· Lifestages such as children, teenagers, pregnant/nursing women

· Population subgroups - highly susceptible (for example, due to asthma, genetics, etc.) and/or highly exposed (for example, based on geographic area, gender, racial or ethnic group, or economic status)

How does exposure occur?

· Pathways (recognizing that one or more may be involved)

· Air

· Surface Water

· Groundwater

· Soil

· Solid Waste

· Food

· Non-food consumer products, pharmaceuticals

· Routes (and related human activities that lead to exposure)

· Ingestion (both food and water)

· Contact with skin

· Inhalation

· Non-dietary ingestion (for example, "hand-to-mouth" behavior)

· Consider the duration and timing of exposure

· Intermittent or continuous exposure?

· Is there a critical time during a lifetime when a chemical is most toxic (e.g., fetal development, childhood, during aging)?

What does the body do with the environmental hazard and how is this impacted by factors such as age, race, sex, genetics, etc.?)

· Absorption - does the body take up the environmental hazard

· Distribution - does the environmental hazard travel throughout the body or does it stay in one place?

· Metabolism - does the body breakdown the environmental hazard?

· Excretion - how does the body get rid of it?

What are the health effects?

· What is known about the toxicity of the environmental hazard?

· Is it linked with any known health effects; e.g., cancer, heart disease, liver disease and nerve disease.

How long does it take for an environmental hazard to cause a toxic effect? How long?

· Acute - right away or within a few hours to a day

· Subchronic - weeks or months (for humans generally less than 10% of their lifespan)

· Chronic - a significant part of a lifetime or a lifetime (for humans at least seven years)

Consider the duration and timing of exposure

· Intermittent or continuous exposure?

· Is there a critical time during a lifetime when a chemical is most toxic (e.g., fetal development, childhood, during aging)?

What risk management strategies would need to be implemented?

· Consider all influences on risk management decisions

· Evaluation and selection of alternatives for mitigation of risk

· What controls will be necessary to minimize risk?

HOW TO DEAL WITH THE LACK OF DATA:

· Macro-state materials

· Much toxicological knowledge of bulk materials

· Extrapolates to nano-scale?

· Natural UFPs

· Volcanic smoke

· Forest fires

· Desert dust

· Anthropogenic UFPs

· Diesel exhaust

· Welding fumes

· Fly ash silica from coal plants

· Engineered nanomaterials

· CNTs

· QDs

· Semiconductor particles