Management of health risk related to use of engineered nanomaterials. An analogy with biosafety

Safety of nanomaterials is a new scientific field, which draws increasing attention in 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 dose-response relationships and exposure limits, which is a cornerstone of 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. The present review aims to draw analogies between the nascent field of nanosafety and the well established field of biosafety, where the risk is also difficult to quantify. Biomed Rev 2017; 28:100-104.