Manufacturers of nanomaterials within the DOD and industry face uncertainty regarding the environmental health and safety (EHS) effects of the materials. Much remains unknown regarding how nanomaterials behave, including questions about the nature of nanoparticles vs. nanostructures, nano vs. bulk materials, time release dependencies, and which dose metric is best for expressing the EHS of nanomaterials. While the scientific and regulatory communities are struggling with these issues, nanomaterial producers lack clear guidance about the type of EHS information that needs to be generated to make risk-informed decisions and meet regulatory compliance. Absence of such a process results in high uncertainty, potential liabilities, and overly conservative assumptions regarding nanotechnology which impedes or completely prevents the acquisition of important capabilities
ERDC is developing a process to generate all the necessary data to expedite regulatory compliance needs