Three-Tiered Risk Assessment for Engineered Nanomaterials. A Use Case for the Semiconductor Industry. (October 2019) - Prodanov, Dimiter
Abstract: Safety of engineered nanomaterials is a new scientific field, which draws increasing attention in the literature. Among the challenges the field is facing are the insufficient amount and quality of nanotoxicological data and the ambiguity in the metrics describing the exposure. This results in substantial difficulties in the actual quantification of risk in terms of exposure limits, which is a cornerstone of the regulatory chemical risk assessment. While there is no golden standard for risk assessment and management several pragmatic systems have come into being. All of these employ some form of categorization and grouping of materials into hazard groups. This paper outlines the risk assessment approach developed within the H2020 project NanoStreeM, which is based on a combination of categorical and quantitative risk assessment tools implemented in a 3-tier system. The approach includes the use of existing tools, such as ART, Consexpo and NanoSafer, in combination with the ISO standard ISO/TS 12901-2:2014 and field measurements. The paper outlines the experience with these tools for risk assessment of typical exposure scenarios present in semiconductor manufacturing.