Small but mighty – working safely with nanomaterials

Very small things can have particular properties that make them useful in all sorts of situations, including providing water-repellent coatings for glass and other materials, delivering medicines to specific tissues in the body, giving clothing anti-microbial properties to reduce or prevent odour and many other uses.

What are nanomaterials?

The term ‘nanomaterials’ typically refers to objects with surface dimensions of less than 100 nanometres, a nanometre being one millionth of a metre or approximately 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. This extreme small size gives them a large surface area in relation to their physical size, which can make them highly mobile and highly reactive.

Potential hazards and legal duties

While nanomaterials can have many beneficial properties, they can also be hazardous. As with all potentially hazardous substances, employers have duties to assess, minimise and control risks. For many substances the key legislation will be the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations; however, for some substances the Dangerous Substances and Explosive Atmospheres Regulations will also be relevant.

Assessing the risks

The first step is to assess the risks; this involves:

• Gathering information, for example, obtaining manufacturers’ safety data sheets for chemicals or instruction manuals for equipment, or looking at where nanomaterials are created during your activities.
• Identifying whether any of the substances encountered are known to have hazardous properties.
• Thinking about where exposure can occur, e.g., during research and development processes, during manufacture, during application of a substance or use of equipment, etc.
• Thinking about who may be exposed and how, e.g., by breathing in fumes, dusts, mists, etc.; by contact with the skin or eyes; or by swallowing or puncturing the skin
• Then considering whether exposure can be prevented or, if not, estimating the potential level of exposure.

Controlling the risks

Once the risks have been identified, the next step is to decide what to do about them. Exactly what controls are required will depend on the particular circumstances, but some typical examples may include:

• Keeping material damp to prevent airborne dust
• Keeping containers sealed when not in use
• Using suitable local exhaust ventilation (LEV) measures (e.g., capture hoods, fume cupboards, etc.) when performing work with nanomaterials
• Providing protective equipment and clothing, e.g., lab coats, coveralls, gloves, eye protection and respiratory protective equipment
• Providing employees with suitable information, instruction, training and supervision

Maintaining controls and emergency response

You will need to consider how controls will be maintained and how to respond to emergency situations. This could include:

• Routine monitoring to ensure that controls remain effective
• Ensuring that LEV equipment is subject to regular maintenance and statutory thorough examinations and ensuring there are safe procedures for changing filters
• Having procedures for cleaning/laundering of reusable protective equipment and clothing
• Having procedures for safe disposal of single-use protective equipment
• Measure for disposing of waste
• Responding to spillages

Again, the appropriate response to a spillage will depend on the circumstances and substances involved, but typically this will involve avoiding using methods that disturb dusts or which may not adequately contain dusts, e.g., avoiding dry brushing, using compressed air or standard domestic-type vacuum cleaners.

Suitable methods may involve wet-wipe cleaning or using a dedicated, commercial, class H cleaner with a suitable filter.

Updated guidance

The UK Nanosafety Group (UKNSG) recently published updated guidance for working safely with nanomaterials; while this is specifically targeted at research and development work, it includes advice that will be useful in a number of areas.

 

If you have any questions or would like support with managing issues at your workplace, please speak to your usual contact or get in touch using the form below.