23/04/2008 - OECD member countries, as well as some non-member
economies and other stakeholders, are pooling expertise and
funding to test the human health and environmental safety
effects of a number of nanomaterials. A special meeting is being
held 24th-25th April in Tokyo to organize the arrangements for
this testing programme. The programme aims to test nanomaterials
which are already in use or will be soon. Japan, the United
Kingdom and the United States have already announced that they
will be working together to test fullerenes (a special form of
carbon otherwise known as "bucky balls"), single-wall carbon
nanotubes, multi-wall carbon nanotubes and cerium oxide. These
nanomaterials will be tested for: their physical-chemical
properties; environmental degradation and accumulation;
environmental toxicology; and mammalian toxicology.
Nanomaterials are used in products as varied as tennis rackets
and sun screens. The OECD's Working Party on Manufactured
Nanomaterials will manage the programme as part of it