Embassy of the United States Ottawa, Canada

NOTE: Reprinted from SAFENANO.org.

On November 28th, the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) held a webinar to discuss its Nanotechnology Work Plan (38KB PDF).

Canada and the U.S. created the Regulation Cooperation Council (RCC) to better align their regulatory approaches in a number of areas, including nanotechnology. According to information presented during the webinar, while the U.S. has received 137 notifications concerning nanomaterial substances, Canada has received only 16. In addition, most of the nanomaterial substances notified in the U.S. were inorganic carbon, whilse most of those notified in Canada were mixed metal oxides.

During the webinar, both Canadian and U.S. spokespersons noted the difficulty in sharing information, due to confidential business information (CBI) claims. The RCC would like to be able to share information to inform better their regulatory programs and risk assessment/management approaches. This would include:

• General substance information: substance name, company, applications, volumes; and
• Technical substance-specific information: physico-chemical properties, technical studies, and use pattern information.

The RCC requested that industry provide more information on the commercial distribution of nanomaterials, as well as more transparency by claiming confidentiality of only that information absolutely critical to market advantage.

To compare risk assessment and risk management practices to highlight and identify best practices, data gaps, and differences between the two jurisdictions, the RCC sought nominations of a nanomaterial substance for a case study. Four nanomaterial substances were nominated: multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), nanocrystalline cellulose, nano silver, and titanium dioxide. The RCC has selected MWCNT for the case study.

In March 2013 the RCC intends to hold a workshop in Washington, D.C., to discuss information collected to date and approaches moving forward. Following this, in Spring 2013 the RCC will hold one or two conference calls or webinars to discuss information gathered between countries and the path forward. Finally, the RCC expects to hold a stakeholder consultation/workshop on results to date in Autumn 2013.

Presentation slides from the webinar are available at nanotech.lawbc.com (291KB PDF).