Category: Health

Following the TSCA Bill

Posted Aug.01, 2010 under Chemicals, Environment, Governmental Interaction, Health, Nanotubes, Regulation, Research, Safety, Statutes
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I previously commented on the House bill that would amend the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) by updating it to include more substances, more disclosure, and expedited review by EPA.  On July 29, 2010, the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection held a hearing on the bill (H.R. 5820).  Certain themes emerged from this hearing.

 Theme 1:  The Economy.

 ●  Jobs.  All agreed that a major goal should be to avoid the loss of more jobs.  This may mean that legislation updating TSCA may proceed more slowly than the current bill would require.  This, in turn, would stall regulation of nanotechnology through TSCA.

 ●  Expense and difficulty of compliance.  Cal Dooley, President and CEO for the American Chemistry Council, representing the large chemical manufacturers in the industry, expressed concern that the increased burden and costs on manufacturers, and the longer time frame for EPA to review submissions, would result in a delay in bringing new chemicals to market and would force manufacturers to other countries.  He stated:  “We would export innovation and jobs instead of products.”

 ●  Foreign competition.  This theme was especially emphasized by Beth D. Bosley on behalf of the Society of Chemical Manufacturers and Affiliates (SOCMA), representing small chemical manufacturers.  She argued that H.R. 5820 “poses overwhelming challenges for the industry,” including the loss of innovation and chemical manufacturing to foreign markets.  She feared that the “substantive loss of high-paying manufacturing jobs will result.”

 Theme Two:  Defining a Scientific Standard

 ●  The Hearing indicated that this is certain to be a sticking point in the debate to come over H.R. 5820.

 ●  Cal Dooley of the American Chemistry Council stated:  “[T]he safety standard as established in this bill sets such an impossibly high hurdle for all chemicals in commerce that it would produce technical, bureaucratic, and commercial barriers so significant they would be the law’s undoing.”

 ●  In contrast, Richard Denison, a Senior Scientist of the Environmental Defense Fund, praised H.R. 5820 for assuring that “the best and latest science” be used for risk-based safety determinations.

 Theme Three:  Impact on Industry Innovation

 ●  Some witnesses presented testimony that H.R. 5820 would spur industry innovation by raising U.S. chemical standards to a level that would allow American companies to compete in a global economy where disclosure of information has become important.

 ●  In contrast, as the representatives of the chemical industry argued, concerns exist that innovation in the chemical industry will be exported abroad and that proprietary information will be compromised.

 What about nanotechnology?

 Though not a pervasive theme, the Hearing had some mention of nanotechnology.  Richard Denison, a Senior Scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, said the following about the current state of nanotechnology regulation:

 “EPA has had little choice but to resort to pleading with the emerging nanotechnology industry to provide, through a voluntary program, the most basic information EPA feels it needs to decide how best to regulate these materials – only to see a level of participation best described as paltry.  Such materials can by no means be assumed to be benign; for example, one class of nanomaterials – multi-walled carbon nanotubes – behaves in a manner that is ominously similar to asbestos.”

 http://energycommerce.house.gov/documents/20100729/Denison.Testimony.07.29.2010.pdf

 Regulation of nanotechnology is coming, one way or another.  It is time to have a full discussion and debate on how best to achieve that, for the interests of the public, workers, and industry.  Currently, it appears that debate on the bill will resume in earnest when the next Congress convenes.  Let’s hope that the debate addresses these critical questions.

 Transcripts and video from the hearing may be accessed at

 http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2095:hearing-on-hr-5820-the-toxic-chemicals-safety-act-of-2010&catid=129:subcommittee-on-commerce-trade-and-consumer-protection&Itemid=70

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A Tale of Two Bills – Nudging Toward Nanoregulation

Posted Jul.27, 2010 under Cosmetics, Environment, Governmental Interaction, Health, Products Liability, Regulation, Research, Safety, Statutes

prod liab imageIt’s fair to say that the United States has not yet tiptoed into the waters of regulating nanotechnology directly.  Rather, new efforts at regulation of chemicals and consumer products tend toward indirect regulation.  That is, these efforts would strengthen and expand existing federal regulation.  Two examples are recent bills introduced in the House of Representatives that would amend the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) for substances and products that may or may not contain nanomaterials.  As discussed in a previous entry in this blog, placing nanomaterials under the same regulatory standards as non-nano substances is a subject that requires discussion on its own.

 Is the current trend toward indirect regulation a good idea?  It’s certainly easier and more efficient in the short run to promulgate broad regulations that encompass a variety of substances and uses, and to amend existing statutes.  And there is no doubt that these statutes needed updating to reflect scientific advancement and new risks.  But there is a danger that regulators – and the public – would be left with the impression that once these statutes have been updated, all substances are sufficiently regulated.  With the products of nanotechnology being so diverse, it is likely that many substances would slip through the cracks of the new legislation.

 Let’s look at the two recently introduced bills.  The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act of 2010 (H.R. 5820) would amend TSCA by requiring the chemical industry to provide EPA with minimum essential data on chemical characteristics, toxicity, exposure, and use, whereupon EPA would undertake an expedited process to reduce exposures to toxic substances in the population.  An important feature of the bill provides for public disclosure of non-confidential and otherwise non-exempt information.  The text of the bill may be found at

http://energycommerce.house.gov/documents/20100722/HR5820.pdf

The current text of TSCA is at 15 U.S.C. §§ 2601 et seq.

The other recently introduced bill is the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010 (H.R. 5786), which contains provisions for protecting consumers from carcinogenic and other toxic ingredients in certain previously unregulated household products, such as perfumes, shaving creams, shampoos, and deodorants.  Like the proposed TSCA amendment, a major purpose of this bill is to update the existing FDCA and its regulations and to disclose the information regarding hazards to the public, in this case primarily through product labels.  Currently, the cosmetics industry is mostly self-regulated, and members of the industry have complained that this new bill lacks appropriate standards and would place an undue burden on the FDA.  Instead, the industry has proposed its own new requirements.

 H.R. 5786 also references nanoparticles, clearly indicating that nanotechnology was intended to be part of the amendment.  For example, Sec. 618(a)(5) requires that cosmetic manufacturers submit various information to the FDA, including “the ingredient list as it appears on the cosmetic label or insert, including the particle size of any nanoscale cosmetic ingredients.”  Sec. 618(e) goes on to authorize the Secretary of Health and Human Services to require that

 “(1) minerals and other particulate ingredients be labeled as ‘nano-scale’ on a cosmetic ingredient label or list if not less than 1 dimension is 100 nanometers or smaller for not less than 1 percent of the ingredient particles in the cosmetic; and

(2) other ingredients in a cosmetic be designated with scale-specific information on a cosmetic ingredient label or list if such ingredients possess scale-specific hazard properties.”

 The text of this bill may be found at

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-5786

 Both bills seem to be a step in the right direction.  But in the context of nanotechnology, complicated questions persist.  For example:

●  Would these updated statutes reach the products of nanotechnology as effectively as they would reach substances and products that have no nano-contents?

 ●  Because benign substances may behave differently at the nanolevel, would such regulation miss potential toxic effects?

●  What science would be behind the decisions to disclose toxicity?

●  Should nanotechnology be regulated separate from chemicals and consumer products?

● Which alternative makes the most sense?

 These and others are the questions that Congress and regulators – and all those who may be potentially exposed – need fully discussed in the coming months and years.

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Remote Control Behavior: The Latest Development in Magnetic Nanoparticles

Posted Jul.15, 2010 under Artificial Molecular Machines, Bionanotechnology, Health, Nanobiotechnology, Nanomedicine, Research

nanotechnology-on-health-area-photoThe University of Buffalo recently unveiled a dramatic development in the nanotech realm. Through the use of magnetic nanoparticles it is possible for scientists to “remotely control ion channels, neurons and even animal behavior.” There are many possible real-world applications of this technology including targeted cancer, diabetes, and neurological disorder treatments.

The method utilized in the control of animal behavior involves the use of magnetic nanoparticles which have entered into the cell membrane of the nematode C. Elegans. The size of the particles, only six nanometers, is essential for the easy movement into the cell membrane. Once situated, the subject was exposed to a magnetic field (much like the intensity of an MRI) and the nanoparticles were heated to 34 degrees Celcius (93.2 degrees Fahrenheit). The worms, which had been moving in a forward direction, move in the opposite direction when the temperature rose.


Group of C. Elegans worms prepared by UB team with nanoparticles at their sensory neurons respond to the application of a magnetic field. To learn more, visit http://www.buffalo.edu/news/11518

“We targeted the [magnetic] nanoparticles near what is the ‘mouth’ of the worms, called the amphid,” explained Arnd Pralle, PhD, assistant professor of physics. “You can see in the video that the worms are crawling around; once we turn on the magnetic field, … most of the worms reverse course. We could use this method to make them go back and forth. Now we need to find out which other behaviors can be controlled this way.”

The implications of this breakthrough could just as easily be applied to humans. Already, there are groups utilizing magnetic nanoparticles to battle cancer cells in a very targeted manner. But, the net is cast wider with the application to remotely controlling animal and human behavior.

In the legal arena, one could pose the question “Is this discovery worthy of patent protection?” Post Bilski, 2010 WL 2555192, the question might easily be answered with regard to patentable subject matter and processes. Now that the machine or transformation test is not exclusively definitive, it is more likely than not the process of heating magnetic nanoparticles to cause a living organism to behave differently would clear the first hurdle on the path to a patent. Of course, the battle would continue in the ‘non-obvious’ and ‘prior publication’ stages, however, innovation is not stifled and the legal battles rage on.

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Should Nanotechnology Be Regulated by Chemical Regulations?

Posted Jun.30, 2010 under Governmental Interaction, Health, Nanotoxicology, Regulation, Research, Safety, Statutes
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In the ongoing effort to determine how best to regulate nanotechnology, the first and easiest suggestion is to use existing laws and regulations that were developed for chemicals.  Some observers believe that the labyrinth of existing regulations (through FDA, EPA, OSHA, and other agencies) is sufficient to regulate nanotechnologies and nanomaterials that may pose hazards to workers or the public.  In a recent report issued by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the GAO noted that the “use of nanomaterials in products is growing faster than our understanding of the risks these materials pose to human health and the environment” (p. 49)

 U.S. Gov’t Accountability Office, Nanotechnology:  Nanomaterials are Widely Used in Commerce, but EPA Faces Challenges in Regulating Risk (2010) (report to the Chair, Senate Committee on Env’t and Public Works), available at

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10549.pdf

 The GAO report indicated that EPA believes it has the authority and ability to regulate manufactured nanomaterials through existing federal statutes, i.e. Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, RCRA, TSCA, and FIFRA, and that it has the authority to manage cleanups of releases of nanomaterials that may be endangering human health or the environment, pursuant to CERCLA.  EPA is currently attempting to work within the structure of these laws to address the potential hazards of nanomaterials, but the GAO report observes that there are significantly greater difficulties in addressing the potential hazards of nanotechnology than in addressing the hazards of conventional chemicals:

 ●  The hazards of nanomaterials vary with the size and shape of the particle.

 ●  Nanomaterials may be more reactive with other chemicals.

 ●  EPA officials say that “it is difficult to assess the risk of nanomaterials that are released into the environment because these materials are so varied and it is difficult to make generalizations about how they will behave once they are released.”  (p. 28)

 ●  Only a limited number of studies have been conducted to date on the hazards of nanomaterials, and existing studies on a nanomaterial constructed in one manner may not be relevant to the same nanomaterial constructed in a different manner.  In other words, “studies of similar nanomaterials may not be comparable.”  (p. 29)

 ●  Many nanomaterials have not yet been studied.

 ●  The scientific community does not currently possess all of the necessary tools, “such as models or measurement technologies” (p. 30), to even characterize or describe the nanomaterials properly, let alone fully understand how the nanoparticles behave.

 ●  Some federal environmental statutes are better suited than others to address the potential hazards of nanomaterials.

 This brief summary of the obstacles to effective analysis of the hazards of nanomaterials – and, accordingly, to effective regulation of nanomaterials – raises an important threshold question for the legal, scientific, and regulatory communities:

 Will effective regulation come from addressing nanomaterials within the existing statutory framework, which was designed for chemicals and other conventional materials?

 This question must be raised, addressed, and vigorously debated.  Right now, there is no clear answer to that important question.  If a new approach, separate from the approaches used for conventional chemicals, is more likely to result in effective regulation sooner, rather than later, then common sense may dictate going that route.  The debate should begin now, not after another decade has passed.

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Nanosteps

Posted Jun.13, 2010 under Governmental Interaction, Health, Nanotoxicology, Regulation, Research, Safety
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Last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) issued its updated manual to support the safety testing of manufactured nanomaterials.  The OECD describes itself as follows:

 “ The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental organization in which representatives of 31 industrialised countries in North America, Europe and the Asia and Pacific region, as well as the European Commission, meet to co-ordinate and harmonise policies, discuss issues of mutual concern, and work together to respond to international problems.”

 The United States is a member country of OECD.

 The Guidance Manual for the Testing of Manufactured Nanomaterials:  OECD’s Sponsorship Programme is a product of the Joint Meeting of the Chemicals Committee and the Working Party on Chemicals, Pesticides and Biotechnology of the OECD.

 One goal of the projects contributing to the manual was to determine whether test guidelines for the safety of traditional chemicals may be suitable for testing the safety of manufactured nanomaterials.  Researchers are particularly interested in the role that particle size and specific area may play in the resulting toxicity of the nanomaterials.

What strikes me here – and when reading other sources on the safety of nanomaterials – is the need to focus on particle size as a factor in determining the health and safety risks.  In some respects, this is reminiscent of asbestos research, in which the size, shape, and characteristics of the asbestos fibers, as well as the manner in which they are bonded to or contained in the product, define the health risks associated with asbestos exposure.  It took a half century of asbestos research to arrive at an understanding of the mechanisms by which the fibers cause illness, including malignancies, and other physiological changes that may not result in illness.

The hope for nanotechnology is that this discussion and investigation are taking place sooner, rather than later, and that there is a concerted effort internationally to coordinate and share research.  Although unregulated nanomaterials are in extensive use already, and many more uses of nanotechnology become available each day, it is worth recognizing the efforts being made to identify the risks at an early stage.

Perhaps the asbestos example taught us something after all.

The manual may be accessed at:

http://www.oecd.org/department/0,3355,en_2649_37015404_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

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The Exposure Chain

Posted May.19, 2010 under Environment, Governmental Interaction, Health, Nanobiotechnology, Research, Safety
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The President’s Cancer Panel’s Report, referenced in my previous post, makes many important statements about cancer.  One summary statement stands out.  The PCP states:

“Single-gene inherited cancer syndromes are believed to account for less than 5 percent of malignancies in the United States.  An unknown percentage of cancers develop due to normal endogenous [internal] processes [such as aging]. . . . Other cancers develop as a result of exogenous [outside of the body] factors, some of which are controllable.”

Report, Sec. 1, at 1.  The PCP then goes on to point out that the existing studies of the relationship of environmental exposures to cancer are out of date, but that even newer studies cannot take into account the many synergistic effects of multiple exposures in the environment that could lead to cancer.

Part of this problem is due to the complex chain of exposures.  The PCP summarizes the chain as follows:

Use of chemicals or other substances in industry and agriculture:  exposure of workers

Dispersal of  contaminants through:

Soil

Air

Water

Consumer products

Entry of the contaminants into the human body through various routes, which may impact both somatic cells and germ cells (egg and sperm)

Occurrence of higher levels of toxic and hormone-disrupting substances in women, including maternal blood, placental tissue, and breast milk

Transference of the substances from the mother to the next generation can occur to the fetus in utero or to a breast-feeding infant

Because the substances may interfere with the genes of the parents, without directly causing disease in the parents, these genes may predispose future generations to cancer.  This transference of the propensity to cause cancer may go from the parents’ genes to the next generation and beyond.

 In one of only a few references to nanotechnology in the Report, the PCP said:  “Limited research to date on unintended health effects of nanomarterials, for example, suggests that unanticipated environmental hazards may emerge from the push for progress.”  Report, Exec. Summary, at iii.

Where does nanotechnology fit into the chain?  At least theoretically, at every stage.  But nanotechnology is a complicating factor in an already complex scientific task.  As a kind of facilitating system – or delivery system, for lack of a more accurate description – nanotechnology may change the characteristics of the substances the technology interfaces with.  This may occur at the earliest stages of developing a use for nanomaterials, but its ultimate impact may not be seen or even measurable for years or generations.  Very little is known about this process.  At the nanolevel, some substances may be absorbed into the human body in unanticipated ways.  Now place this into the exposure chain, and the problems of characterizing and measuring risk increase exponentially.

 I will continue to sort through the Report and its relevance to nanotechnology in future posts.

http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/pdf/FourthReport.pdf

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Report of the President’s Cancer Panel – What’s Nano Got To Do With It?

Posted May.07, 2010 under Environment, Governmental Interaction, Health, Regulation, Research, Safety

prod liab imageRecently, the President’s Cancer Panel released its report, “Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now,” which made the bold and distressing statement that “the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated.”  Currently, there are approximately 80,000 chemicals on the market in the United States many of which are likely carcinogens that are used by most Americans on a regular basis in their daily lives.  The risks of these carcinogenic substances have a significantly greater impact on children than adults.  The Panel observed that most of these chemicals are “un- or understudied and largely unregulated.”  Among other things, the Panel concluded that research on the environmental causes of cancer has taken a back seat to research on the genetic and molecular mechanisms that cause cancer.  Research into the environmental causes of cancer has been given low priority and insufficient funding, they say.

 What does this report on chemicals and cancer have to do with nanotechnology?  The long-term health risks of nanotechnology are currently unknown.  If, as the Panel states, only a few hundred of those existing 80,000 chemicals have been tested for safety to date, where does that put emerging technologies such as nanotechnology?  Right now, at the bottom of the list.  And if the Panel’s recommendations are implemented, it is likely that available resources will be consumed by studying a fraction of those 80,000 chemicals.

 The Panel identified the following barriers to effective regulation of environmental contaminants:

 “(1) inadequate funding and insufficient staffing,

(2)   fragmented and overlapping authorities coupled with uneven and decentralized enforcement,

(3)   excessive regulatory complexity,

(4)   weak laws and regulations, and

(5)   undue industry influence.”

 It is worth considering the degree to which each one of these barriers to effective regulation may apply to nanotechnology, either now or in the coming months and years.

 Given this state of affairs, what is to be done?  One might reasonably ask:  Why should the public bear the burden of proving that an environmental exposure is harmful?  Would it make more sense to have industry – those developing the substances and placing them on the market – conduct the studies on the human environmental impacts in the first instance?  When it comes to consumer products, it seems that it is only after the fact – after harm has come to persons exposed – that the requisite depth of study is conducted.

 This is an ongoing discussion.  I will be examining other aspects of the Panel’s report in relation to nanotechnology in future posts.

 The report may be found at

 http://deainfo.nci.nih.gov/advisory/pcp/pcp08-09rpt/PCP_08-09_508.pdf

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Nanotechnology and Government Alphabet Soup

Posted May.01, 2010 under Environment, Governmental Interaction, Health, Regulation, Safety, Statutes
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As I’m reading some material on the federal National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) web site, I am struck by the breathtakingly broad scope of nanotechnology and its incorporation into useful products that reach into every facet of life.  The NNI coordinates funding for nanotechnology R & D across 25 federal departments and agencies.  NNI promotes the development and use of the technologies through NNCO (the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office) and the NSET Subcommittee (the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology Subcommittee), and of course those 25 federal departments and agencies.  NNI also is involved in coordinating research strategies for studying the effects of nanotechnology on the environment and on the public’s health and safety.  But so far it has not taken any specific position on regulation.

 

To demonstrate what regulation could look like, it’s useful to think about the many departments, agencies, and federal acts or regulatory measures that could come within the jurisdictional scope of nanotechnology and nanosubstances.  To name just a few:

 

Department of Agriculture

Department of Labor

Department of Homeland Security

Department of the Interior

Health and Human Services

Department of Energy

Etc.

 

FDA (Food and Drug Administration)

FDCA (Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act)

EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)

CWA (Clean Water Act)

CAA (Clean Air Act)

OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration)

PEL (Permissible Exposure Limits)

NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health)

NSF (National Science Foundation)

FIFRA (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act)

NEPA (National Environmental Protection Act)

TSCA  (Toxic Substances Control Act)

CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission)

FHSA (Federal Hazardous Substances Act)

SDWA (Safe Drinking Water Act)

To name only a few . . .

 

The point of this alphabet soup exercise is that nanotechnology impacts so many facets of society that developing an approach to regulation will be difficult at best.  Leaving regulation to individual agencies will by its nature be narrow, thereby missing many issues.  But broad regulation – such as a new department along the lines of Homeland Security – may lack coherence and control.  As nanoproducts proliferate and nanotechnology becomes more pervasive, regulation will come, and it must strike a balance between these two poles.

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What Do the Studies Mean?

Posted Apr.22, 2010 under Cosmetics, Health, Litigation, Nanotoxicology, Products Liability, Regulation, Research, Toxic Torts
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In the call for studies on the health and safety of nanoparticles in various uses, it is easy to overlook important questions about what the studies mean.  Does a study demonstrating what may be considered an adverse outcome provide a basis for legal action?  The complex answer is, “Sometimes yes and sometimes no,” or in the words of every law professor, “It depends.”

Let’s take a look a highly publicized study published in late 2009.  See Trouiller et al., Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles Induce DNA Damage and Genetic Instability In vivo in Mice, CANCER RES. 2009; 69: (22), Nov. 15, 2009.  Researchers from UCLA conducted a study in vivo on mice to test the effects of the titanium dioxide nanoparticles, regularly used in many consumer products, including cosmetics (especially sunblocks), food coloring, toothpaste, and paint.  The researchers herald their study as the first in vivo study to demonstrate a connection between the particular substance and genetic harm.  Previous in vitro studies, they say, produced mixed results and by their very nature did not involve living tissue.

First, a word about how the law views in vitro and in vivo studies.  In vitro studies, such as the Ames test, test the effects of chemicals on bacteria or other cells in a laboratory dish, looking for genetic mutations.  These studies are sometimes offered in a legal setting to suggest that exposure to the substance is carcinogenic in human, on the theory that somatic cell mutations lead to uncontrolled cell reproduction and, ultimately, cancer.  In vivo studies compare laboratory animals exposed to a particular substance to a control group that was not exposed, looking for differences in outcomes between the two groups.  What both types of studies have in common is that they do not involve humans.  As a result, they also have in common the need to extrapolate from the test data to predictable results in humans, a process that is speculative.  In other words, both studies fall short of demonstrating exactly what will happen when humans are exposed to the substance.  But both are relatively fast, inexpensive, and do not involve the ethical dilemmas of testing on humans.

Courts bristle when plaintiffs seek to introduce this kind of evidence, without anything else, in personal injury litigation as proof that exposure to a particular substance caused their illnesses.  The role of courts in determining what evidence is admissible under the rules of evidence is designed to keep frivolous suits from consuming resources and from reaching juries, which might be more impressionable than the court.  Regulators are less constrained than courts, however.  The role of government regulators is circumscribed by the legislation giving them authority.

In the scheme of things, the law prefers in vivo studies to in vitro studies because in vivo studies demonstrate some action of the substance on mammalian living tissue.  But both types of studies are a distant second to epidemiological studies on human populations.  Such statistical studies of risk factors examine groups of humans to determine the strength of relationships between exposures and outcomes.  But even they do not examine the direct impact of the substance on human tissues.

All scientific and statistical studies used to demonstrate carcinogenicity serve to demonstrate the difficulty the law has with understanding and using the studies to make legal decisions.  In the important U.S. Supreme Court case of Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, 509 U.S. 579 (1993), in which the Court provided guidance on determining the reliability of scientific studies in the federal courts (in the context of a toxic torts case involving the prescription drug Bendectin), the Court had the following to say about the distinctions between science and litigation:

[T]here are important differences between the quest for truth in the courtroom and the quest for truth in the laboratory. Scientific conclusions are subject to perpetual revision. Law, on the other hand, must resolve disputes finally and quickly. The scientific project is advanced by broad and wide-ranging consideration of a multitude of hypotheses, for those that are incorrect will eventually be shown to be so, and that in itself is an advance. Conjectures that are probably wrong are of little use, however, in the project of reaching a quick, final, and binding legal judgment – often of great consequence – about a particular set of events in the past.

Id. at 596-97.

There is strength in numbers, however.  The more reliable studies that are conducted showing similar results, the more likely the substance will be regulated effectively.  And the more likely litigants will be able to assemble a package of expert scientific evidence that will support their positions.

 

An abstract of the article may be found at http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/69/22/8784

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Nanotechnology in Our Food

Posted Apr.18, 2010 under Artificial Molecular Machines, Governmental Interaction, Health, Litigation, Nanotoxicology, Products Liability, Regulation, Toxic Torts
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According to a recent report from the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), the FDA is currently taking a hands-off approach to food additives that contain engineered nanoparticles.  In fact, the FDA does not require food manufacturers to report additives that are deemed generally regarded as safe (GRAS).  Who determines the GRAS status?  The food manufacturers, without oversight or approval from the FDA!  The following excerpt from the GAO report, United States Government Accountability Office, Report to Congressional Requesters, Food Safety: FDA Should Strengthen Its Oversight of Food Ingredients Determined to be Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) (2010), provides a realistic and chilling view at the current intersection of the American food supply and nanotechnology:

FDA’s approach to regulating nanotechnology allows engineered nanomaterials to enter the food supply as GRAS substances without FDA’s knowledge. While some uses of engineered nanomaterials have the potential to help ensure food safety, uncertainties remain about how to determine their safety in food. After reviewing the uncertainties associated with the safety of engineered nanomaterials, FDA has decided that it does not need additional authority to regulate products containing such materials. Rather, FDA encourages, but does not require, companies considering using engineered nanomaterials in food to consult with the agency regarding whether such substances might be GRAS. Because GRAS notification is voluntary and companies are not required to identify nanomaterials in their GRAS substances, FDA has no way of knowing the full extent to which engineered nanomaterials have entered the U.S. food supply as part of GRAS substances. In contrast to FDA’s approach, all food ingredients that incorporate engineered nanomaterials must be submitted to regulators in Canada and the European Union before they can be marketed.

Id. at Highlights page (emphasis added).

The application of nanotechnology to food is potentially very beneficial. Two specific examples are 1) nanotags to “improve the traceability of food products (the ability to track these products from point of origin to retail sale)” and 2) the most prolific “usage appears to be in food packaging, where applications such as antimicrobial nanofilms—thin layers of substances meant to hamper the growth of bacteria and fungi—may help bolster food safety.” Notwithstanding the current and obvious benefits, the FDA, and its foreign counterparts, realized that the potential for hidden challenges does exist.  As a result, the FDA created a taskforce in 2007 to identify some of the potential pitfalls, and to recommend possible solutions. The taskforce identified several challenges posed by utilizing nanotechnology, specifically “ensuring the adequacy of methods for evaluating the safety of these engineered nanomaterials in food.” It also made mention of how little the FDA actually knows about nanotechnology and as a result, declined to include a definition of it in its report. (GAO Report 26-27).

At this point in time, even if something were to go awry as a result of nanomaterials being utilized in the food supply, where does the blame fall? According to current administrative law, the courts take an extremely deferential stance in favor of agency decisions when it comes to science. In Baltimore Gas & Elec. Co. v. Natural Res. Def. Counsel, 462 U.S. 87, 103 (1983), the Court stated, “[a] reviewing court must remember that the [agency] is making predictions, within its area of special expertise, at the frontiers of science. When examining this kind of scientific determination, . . . , a reviewing court must generally be at its most deferential.” This case dealt with a rule adopted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) based on findings “that permanent storage of nuclear waste would have no significant environmental impact.” Michael Asimov & Ronald M. Levin, State and Federal Administrative Law 595 (3d ed. 2009). This leads one to believe that if the NRC received this level of deference in the early stages of nuclear energy proliferation, the courts would almost certainly provide the same to the FDA’s lackadaisical decision-making approach to nanotech and the food we eat.

I certainly do not wish to suggest that the use of nanomaterials in our food supply is going to lead us down the long road of massive tort litigation, but I do wish to assert that if we are not vigilant from the very beginning, it is anyone’s guess where it could lead.

www.gao.gov/new.items/d10246.pdf

www.foodsafetynews.com/2010/03/gao-fda-does-not-ensure-safety-of-food-additives/

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