Vitis Regulatory attends ICEENN 2023

At Vitis Regulatory, we have recently participated in the 16th International Conference on the Environmental Effects of Nanoparticles and Nanomaterials (ICEENN2023) held at Britain’s Ocean City of Plymouth from 6th to 8th September 2023, attended by researchers, regulators, industry and service providers. The main themes from this year’s nanoscience conference were the fate and behaviour of nanoparticles in the environment and the ecotoxicological effects from exposures to nanomaterials. As Vitis Regulatory, we were honoured to co-chair the session on the environmental risk assessment of nanomaterials.

Measurement of the presence of nanoparticles in surface waters, soil solutions and groundwaters, and appropriate regulatory application of those data, remains challenging. The latest research in these areas and others was presented via engaging talks, plenty of discussion time, as well as posters: some particular highlights included work on approaches that can quantify nanoparticle numbers and concentrations in different biological matrices, and how this research work is directly feeding into the on-going work to develop OECD guidance documents. The impacts that nanomaterials are having onto marine organisms from temperate to polar environments was presented as a matter of concern. The process to incorporate this knowledge into sustainable, safer-by design materials was discussed.

From a regulatory point of view, we were pleased to hear about the recent development of predictive models of nanomaterial toxicity, such as those with Daphnia magna. Additionally, important progress in the use of species sensitivity distribution models to address knowledge gaps in the environmental risk of nanomaterials was presented, with interesting case studies for graphene-based materials and silver nanoparticles.

We would like to warmly thank the hosts at the University of Plymouth. We spent a few days in warm weather, as made more special with an exciting dinner at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth. We look forward to the next ICEENN conference.