Vireo Advisors Team Co-Authors Risk Chapter in Metrology and Standardization for Nanotechnology: Protocols and Industrial Innovations

Vireo Advisors' Jo Anne Shatkin, James Ede, and Kimberly Ong published a chapter, “Minimizing Risk: An Overview of Risk Assessment and Risk Management of Nanomaterials” to the newly released “Metrology and Standardization for Nanotechnology: Protocols and Industrial Innovations”.  

In Vireo’s chapter, we give an overview of the key areas in which risk assessment and management can be addressed, and highlight current knowledge as well as research gaps. The chapter addresses nano-specific needs for risk assessment, including physico-chemical measurement, dose metrics, assay interference, and consideration for realistic exposure scenarios. We also provide an overview of existing strategies and frameworks to support reliable risk assessment evaluation, including the use of weight of evidence, categorization and grouping, and alternative testing strategies and methods, which are all strategies to improve the efficiency of assessment, and avoid the development of redundant or unnecessary data. 

A section on risk management highlights recent information on how to protect workers, consumers, the general public, and the environment from exposure to nanomaterials, and provides direction based on the most recent research and guidance documents.