At a glance
NIOSH created a peer review plan for a technical document on the occupational health hazardous of engineered nanomaterials. It groups similarly hazardous nanomaterials into categories (or bands). These bands help occupational safety professionals choose the best methods to protect workers from harmful exposures.
Overview
Title
Approaches to Developing Occupational Exposure Limits or Bands for Engineered Nanomaterials
Subject
Statistical analyses of rodent toxicological and histopathological data on pulmonary endpoints for engineered nanomaterials. The analyses use standard and state-of-the-art dose-response modeling and statistical learning methods.
Purpose
NIOSH has prepared a draft technical report to:
- Explore currently available data on pulmonary hazard of engineered nanomaterials
- Generate estimates of health hazard for those nanomaterials
- Identify groups of similarly hazardous nanomaterials
- Create and evaluate a framework for classifying a new nanomaterial into a hazard group using only its physicochemical properties.
The technical report summarizes the findings in those areas and identifies future needs.
Review information
Timing of Review
February – March 2021
Primary Disciplines or Expertise Needed for Review
Statistics; Toxicology; Industrial Hygiene; Occupational Health Risk Assessment; Hazard Banding
Type of Review
Individual letter
Number of Reviewers
4-10
Reviewers Selected by
CDC/NIOSH
Public Nominations Requested for Reviewers
No
Opportunities for the Public to Comment
Yes
Peer Reviewers Provided with Public Comments Before Their Review
No
Have OMB requirements been deferred or waived for this dissemination?
No
Will alternative peer review procedures be applied to this dissemination?
No
Charge to peer reviewers
In reviewing the draft document, you are asked to focus on the technical content and consider the following questions:
- Does the draft document adequately describe the process for gathering and evaluating the information available on occupational exposure limits or bands for engineered nanomaterials?
- Does the draft document adequately describe the development of a framework for categorizing engineered nanomaterials by potential occupational health hazard from inhalation exposure?
- Are the clustering and classification modeling methodologies reasonable for these data?
- Is a revision to current occupational exposure banding guidance needed to incorporate a band F?
- How useful and practical is the approach described in the both the user guide and full technical report for deriving categorical occupational exposure limits, and what are the opportunities for improvement?
- Are the current searches and collection of scientific data sufficient, and are there additional opportunities for obtaining data that were not included?
- What evidence is provided to suggest that the methods illustrated would be preferred for a new set of (theoretically ideal) data, and/or what has been learned to suggest any changes?
- Are there additional comments that you would like to provide?