Engineered NanoMaterials interactions with living plants: Benefits, hazards and regulatory policies

Engineered NanoMaterials (ENMs) presence in landfills and wastewater treatment plants has become a major public health issue. Assessing ENMs toxicity to human health and the environment is crucial to define appropriate remediation strategies and effective legislations. Current analytical tools for evaluating ENMs hazards include grouping/quantitative approaches such as high-throughput screening, high content and proteomics analyses and computational toxicology. NAnoREG initiative has been created by the European Union to frame regulatory policies on the impact of ENMs on human health. This project is focused on the implementation of Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals principles to NanoMaterials. ENMs should get evaluated according to three criteria: their Safe-by-Design potential, life cycle assessment and the Nano-specific approach to Prioritization and Risk Assessment protocol.