FICHE D’INFORMATION SUR LA DÉFINITION DES NANOMATÉRIAUX

The document examines the challenges of defining nanomaterials for regulatory purposes, contrasting size-based and property-based approaches. It highlights the European Union as the only jurisdiction with a horizontal legal definition, while noting that internal EU sectoral regulations remain unharmonized. The text details technical difficulties in measurement and the ongoing conflict between industry preferences for higher thresholds and scientific/civil society calls for broader, more precautionary definitions.

• A legal definition of nanomaterials is critical for establishing specific risk assessment systems and management measures; definitions that are too restrictive may allow materials to enter the market without proper evaluation, while those that are too broad may apply irrelevant requirements to non-nano materials.
• The European Union is the only jurisdiction currently using legal definitions for nanomaterials, although it lacks harmony across its own sectoral regulations, such as those for cosmetics and biocides.
• Size-based definitions, typically using a range of 1 to 100 nm, are the most common globally but face scientific criticism because the 100 nm threshold is considered arbitrary rather than scientific.
• Property-based definitions are problematic because some nano-scale properties are also found in bulk materials, and some toxicity mechanisms depend solely on size regardless of specific properties.
• The 2011 European Commission recommendation defines nanomaterials as natural, accidental, or manufactured materials where at least 50% of particles in the size distribution have one or more external dimensions between 1 nm and 100 nm.
• Technical implementation of the EU definition is hindered by the lack of standardized analysis methods, difficulties in measuring non-spherical particles, and the inaccuracy of converting mass or volume distributions into numerical distributions.
• There is a significant conflict regarding the EU definition: industry advocates for changing the measurement unit from number to mass and increasing the threshold to 90%, while scientists and civil society suggest lowering the threshold to 0.15% or expanding the size range to include particles up to 300 nm.

APA

Center for International Environmental Law (2014). FICHE D’INFORMATION SUR LA DÉFINITION DES NANOMATÉRIAUX. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Nano-Definition-Factsheet-French.pdf

Chicago

Center for International Environmental Law. FICHE D’INFORMATION SUR LA DÉFINITION DES NANOMATÉRIAUX. 2014. https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Nano-Definition-Factsheet-French.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Center for International Environmental Law |title=FICHE D’INFORMATION SUR LA DÉFINITION DES NANOMATÉRIAUX |date=November 2014 |url=https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Nano-Definition-Factsheet-French.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{centerforinternationalenvironmentallaw2014fiche, author = {{Center for International Environmental Law}}, title = {{FICHE D’INFORMATION SUR LA DÉFINITION DES NANOMATÉRIAUX}}, institution = {Center for International Environmental Law}, year = {2014}, month = nov, url = {https://www.ciel.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Nano-Definition-Factsheet-French.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }