The newly started European Commission LIFE project NanoMONITOR addresses the challenges of supporting the risk assessment of nanomaterials under REACH by development of a real-time information and monitoring system.

Despite the growing number of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) already available on the market and in contract to their benefits the use, production, and disposal of ENMs raises concerns about their environmental impact.

Within this context, the overall aim of LIFE NanoMONITOR is to improve the use of environmental monitoring data to support the implementation of REACH regulation and promote the protection of human health and the environment when dealing with ENMs. Within the EU REACH Regulation, a chemical safety assessment report, including risk characterisation ratio (RCR), must be provided for any registered ENMs. In order to address these objectives, the project partners have developed a rigorous methodology encompassing the following aims:

• Develop a novel software application to support the acquisition, management and processing of data on the concentration of ENMs.

• Develop an on-line environmental monitoring database (EMD) to support the sharing of information.

• Design and develop a proven monitoring station prototype for continuous monitoring of particles below 100 nm in air (PM0.1)

• Design and develop standardized sampling and data analysis procedures to ensure the quality, comparability and reliability of the monitoring data used for risk assessment.

• Support the calculation of the predicted environmental concentration (PEC) of ENMs in the context of REACH.

Read more about the project on the official website: http://www.lifenanomonitor.eu/en/