| NanoLINEN: Nanotoxicology link between India and European Nations
Alok Dhawan1, Rishi Shanker1, Blanca Laffon2, Juan Fernandez Tajes2,Dietmar Fuchs3, Gert van der Laan4, Pieter van Broekhuizen5, Heidi Becker6, Heinz-Jorn Moriske6, Joao P.F. Teixeira7, Marie Carriere8, Nathalie Herlin-Boime8, Ayse Basak Engin9, Erdem Coskun9, Bensu Karahalil9
1Nanomaterial Toxicology Group, Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (CSIR, India), PO Box 80, M.G. Marg, Lucknow-226001, India;
2Toxicology Unit, University of ACoruna,Campus Elvina s/n, A Coruna-15071, Spain;
3Division of Biological Chemistry, Medical University, Innsbruck, Austria;
4Netherlands Center for Occupational Diseases, Coronal Institute for Occupational Health, University of Amsterdam, Tafelbergweg 51, PO Box 22660, Amsterdam 1100DD, The Netherlands;
5IVAM UvA, Nanotechnology and Chemical Risks, Postbus 18180, NL-1001ZB Amsterdam, The Netherlands;
6The Section of Toxicology and Health-Related Environmental Monitoring, The Federal Environment Agency (UBA), PO Box 1406, Dessau-Roblau 06813, Germany;
7Environmental Health Department, National Institute of Health, Rua Alexandre Herculano, 321, 4000-055 Porto, Portugal;
8Nanometric Structure Group, Matter Science Division & Laboratoire de Structure et dynamique par Resonnance Magnetique, CEA, France;
9Gazi University, Faculty of Pharmacy, Department of Toxicology, 06330 Ankara, Turkey.
Abstract
Nanotechnology is a rapidly growing converging technology bringing a growing amount of nanotech-based products on the market. This is associated with potential environmental and occupational health risks. Due to limited knowledge on the toxic effects of nanoparticles, there is a need to undertake studies in this new area. The NanoLINEN project under the New INDIGO program of the EU and the Department of Biotechnology, Government of India is a consortium of seven European laboratories and one CSIR Laboratory from India and will strengthen the research ties in the upcoming area of nanotoxicology. NanoLINEN will help in interdisciplinary collaborative studies to investigate the potential environmental and human health risks associated with nanotechnology. NanoLINEN will involve mobility of scientists among the eight participating countries and identify niches for perusing collaborative research. It will create awareness and understanding of this new area. Six workshops will be organized with participants from academia, industry, regulatory agencies and civil society. The development of good practices, tools for the safe handling of nanomaterials in practice, as well as establishment and validation of tests and biomarkers in R&D and production is envisaged. This will contribute to fill the knowledge gaps on safety aspects of nanoparticles on human and environmental health. Our ultimate goal is to develop robust risk assessment methodologies which will be useful and comprehensible for the community manufacturing and using nano-products, while bringing a precautionary approach into practice. We believe that the key to this goal lies under setting up a strong link over EU and India.
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