The National Agency for Food, Environment & Occupational Health Safety in France (ANSES) released an opinion and report about the French nanomaterials register R-Nano (https://www.r-nano.fr/). The report has received big media coverage in France. 

52,000 registration dossiers were analyzed where only 10% had the correct information provided on nanomaterial use and therefore usable. All of 90% of the nanomaterial characterization data such as size, specific surface area and surface charge are not usable. 

Based on their analysis, ANSES recommend considering: 

• Broadening the requirement of reporting and the obligation of the declaration so that reporting also includes  substances exported to of France[SFH1] 
• Including everyone in the transmission chain to enable the identification of consumers goods containing nanomaterials
• Requiring that additional information is provided such as the quantities deployed by type of use and the number of workers potentially exposed to nanomaterials
• Lowering the threshold for reporting nanomaterials, meaning the inclusion of nanomaterials that contain less than the current 50% threshold of nanoparticles (1-100nm) by size number distribution.

With regard to the latter, ANSES recommendation to lower the 50% threshold is extremely important in the context of the coming revision of the EU COM’s recommendation of the definition of the term ‘nanomaterial’. We could face a new overall definition of the term, which will have profound implications for how nanomaterials will be regulated in the future.

For further information about the report, see: https://www.anses.fr/en/content/nanomaterials-assessment-r-nano-national-reporting-scheme (In French)