EPA Accused of Dropping Ball on Nano-Silver
The EPA has failed to adopt safety regulations for nano-silver, which is becoming increasingly widespread in consumer products as an antibacterial agent, the Center for Food Safety claims.
The center and five other organizations sued the Environmental Protection Agency and its Administrator, Gina McCarthy, in D.C. Federal Court.
Six years ago, the plaintiffs say, they petitioned the EPA to regulate consumer products using nanotechnology.
“Consumer products containing manufactured nanoparticles have already arrived on market shelves, and numerous pesticidal products within EPA’s jurisdiction, such as antibacterial and antibiotic clothing, are now widely available,” the complaint says. “Manufactured nanomaterials have fundamentally different properties from their bulk material counterparts, and those properties create unique public health and environmental risks that require new risk assessment paradigms. Yet EPA has thus far failed to address the risks of pesticidal nanomaterials such as nano-silver-containing products.”