La Commissione Europea ha pubblicato il 10 giugno scorso la Raccomandazione C(2022) 3689 final sulla nuova definizione di nanomateriale.
“Nanomaterial’ means a natural, incidental or manufactured material consisting of solid particles that are present, either on their own or as identifiable constituent particles in aggregates or agglomerates, and where 50 % or more of these particles in the number-based size distribution fulfil at least one of the following conditions:
(a) one or more external dimensions of the particle are in the size range 1 nm to 100 nm;
(b) the particle has an elongated shape, such as a rod, fibre or tube, where two external dimensions are smaller than 1 nm and the other dimension is larger than 100 nm;
(c) the particle has a plate-like shape, where one external dimension is smaller than 1 nm and the other dimensions are larger than 100 nm.
In the determination of the particle number-based size distribution, particles with at least two orthogonal external dimensions larger than 100 µm need not be considered.
However, a material with a specific surface area by volume of < 6 m2 /cm3 shall not be considered a nanomaterial.”
Per facilitare l’implementazione della definizione, il JRC sta sviluppando inoltre una guida dedicata alla definizione: la sua pubblicazione è prevista per l’autunno 2022.
