Nanoparticle Occupational Safety and Health Consortium

The Nanoparticle Occupational Safety and Health (NOSH) Consortium was one of the first groups founded in responses to the safety discourse around nanoparticle.

DuPont coordinated the launch of the NOSH Consortium in December 2005. The NOSH Consortium had 16 members, namely Procter & Gamble, DuPont, Dow Chemical, Intel Corporation, Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Boeing, Degussa, the U.S. Department of Energy-Office of Science, Environmental Defense, General Electric, the UK Health and Safety Executive, Kimberly-Clark, the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), PPG, and Rohm & Haas.

The goal of the NOSH Consortium was to develop best practices to protect workers who had to handle engineered nanoparticles. The NOSH Consortium was chaired by Gordon Peters of Proctor & Gamble, with Michele Ostraat and Keith Swain of DuPont as the project co-leaders. Most of the research was conducted at the DuPont Experimental Station by Michele Ostraat and the project had a budget of approximately $600,000. Presentations were delivered at 11 scientific and health and safety conferences between 2005 and 2007. The NOSH Consortium had three main deliverables: (1) synthesis of aerosol nanoparticles of various chemistries, characterization of aerosol instruments, and examination of aerosol behavior as a function of time; (2) development of a portable aerosol monitor; and (3) development of a test method to measure filtration efficiency and measurement of nanoparticle filtration efficiencies of commercially available filter media.

The NOSH Consortium identified recommendations and opportunities for future work, including the the following research areas: (1) nanomaterial inhalation toxicology, (2) explosion hazard testing of nanomaterials, and (3) carbon nanotube materials. It also identified areas needing strategic direction and prioritization: (1) prioritization of federally funded research projects, and (2) international collaborations on occupational and environmental health