Regulation and risk management articles from across Nature Portfolio

A double-blind, randomized, controlled human exposure trial of highly purified and thin nanometre-sized graphene oxide nanosheets shows that acute inhalation of aerosolized nanoparticles is not associated with harmful effects in healthy humans.

Carbon nanotubes are used in a growing number of applications, but recent European Union actions propose to ban them. This Perspective highlights gaps in knowledge regarding potential safety and environmental risks throughout the life cycle of carbon nanotubes and provides a framework to inform policy decisions.

This Review discusses how a comprehensive system for defining nanomaterial descriptors can enable a safe-and-sustainable-by-design concept for engineered nanomaterials.

This perspective presents a framework with a tiered approach for human health risk assessment of nanopesticides that will facilitate informed decisions by regulators and industry.

The proposal of a FAIR-aligned Nanosafety Data Interface can advance findability, accessibility and interoperability across physicochemical, bio–nano interaction, human toxicity, omics, ecotoxicological and exposure data.

The operationalization and improvement of environmental exposure assessment models for engineered nanomaterials can build on ten emerging principles relating to their release pathways, waste handling, transformations, influence of the properties on reactions and role that organisms can play in their fate and transport.

The development of nano-enabled agriculture will require proper safety regulations. This Perspective outlines the need for a combined approach to regulate health and environmental risks under the same framework.

A double-blind, randomized, controlled human exposure trial of highly purified and thin nanometre-sized graphene oxide nanosheets shows that acute inhalation of aerosolized nanoparticles is not associated with harmful effects in healthy humans.

In 2006, a group of scientists proposed five grand challenges to support the safe handling of nanotechnology. Ten years on, Andrew Maynard and Robert Aitken — two of the original authors — look at where we have come, and where we still need to go.

Increasing globalization means that traditional occupational epidemiological approaches may no longer apply, suggesting a need for an alternative model to assess the long-term impact of nanomaterial exposure on health.

In the last few years, the advent of metal halide perovskite solar cells has revolutionized the prospects of next-generation photovoltaics. As this technology is maturing at an exceptional rate, research on its environmental impact is becoming increasingly relevant.