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Posted: May 10th, 2012 Nanotoolkit: Working Safely with Engineered Nanomaterials inAcademic Research Settings ( Nanowerk News ) The California Nanosafety Consortium of Higher Education haspublished Nanotoolkit – Working Safely with Engineered Nanomaterials inAcademic Research Settings (pdf), a compendium of best practices, standards, and guidelinesto using engineered nanomaterials. Background The increasing use of nanomaterials in research and developmentlaboratories along with applications in industry are providingbreakthroughs for many technologies and solutions for addressingmajor problems in our society. However, as with all newtechnologies, the potential health effects of engineerednanomaterials (ENMs) remain uncertain. The aim of this project isto provide practical guidance as to how ENMs should be handledsafely in the research laboratory setting in the face of suchuncertainty over possible toxic effects. Currently many government agencies, academic institutions, andindustries have issued detailed guidance documents as to how NMsshould be monitored, controlled, and handled in different worksettings. Only a portion of these practices have been validated byscientific research or reference to peer reviewed literature. Mostguidance documents and exposure studies to date have focusedprimarily on industrial settings, but academic research settingspresent their own challenges that also need to be addressed. Muchof the initial research and development in nanotechnology is stillperformed in academic research laboratories. In academiclaboratories, the quantity of materials used tends to be less thanthose used in industry, but the variety of nanomaterials used tendsto be more diverse. As a result, the potential hazards are alsomore diverse and exposure monitoring is more challenging.Furthermore, academic practices tend to be less standardized and tovary more from lab to lab and from day to day than typicalindustrial processes. This means that engineering controls whichare commonly used in industry may not be practical to apply inacademic laboratory research settings. The nature of research and training in academic institutionsdictates that new students and employees with various backgroundsand levels of training are regularly being introduced into the manydiverse laboratory settings. Undergraduate student researchers,graduate students and other laboratory personnel often have minimalformal safety training or are lacking the latest hazard informationabout such new technological developments. All of these factorsmake a simple adoption or application of standardized industrialbest practices for working with NMs in laboratories difficult. Goals The goal of this project is to provide an easy to use tool kit foracademic researchers to quickly identify safe handling practicesbased on whether the work they propose is in a low, moderate, orhigh potential exposure category. The exposure categories andcontrols were determined from a review and analysis of many relatednanomaterial health and safety guidance documents. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China Led Miners Cap Lamp , Mining Cap Lamp Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Mining Cap Lamp today!
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