Nanotechnologies have opened the way to a wide range of innovative products in food, cosmetics, healthcare, computing, energy storage, and other areas. The result of the deliberate manipulation of matter at the molecular level (typically at a scale of approximately 100 nanometers or less, a nanometer being one-billionth of a meter), nanomaterials have been used in a growing number of products that are available to consumers worldwide. Understanding of how nanomaterials interact with the environment and the human body, however, has not kept pace with the development of nanotechnologies.

Editors' Summary

I. Introduction: Confirmation of the Inevitable

This Article introduces the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA), and describes chemical substances for which testing must be conducted under FIFRA, other chemical testing that could be required, persons required to conduct the tests, data compensation procedures, and associated legal issues.

The failure to adequately regulate the application of pesticides over and into water bodies is a troubling example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing in federal environmental regulation. Under existing federal law, pesticide applicators who comply with the requirements of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) may then proceed to apply such FIFRAregulated pesticides in a manner that may constitute a violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA).

The U.S. Congress enacted the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) in 1996. In so doing, Congress revolutionized the fundamental principles of food safety and ushered in a new regulatory and legal framework for addressing food safety issues. The legal, regulatory, and scientific challenges posed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) and other federal agencies' implementation of the FQPA poses unprecedented opportunities and pitfalls for the legal practitioner and toxicologist.

The previous Article described the Food Quality Protection Act (FQPA) and some of the legal challenges that have occurred during implementation. The purpose of this Article is to illustrate three generic chemical testing issues that could be related to the testing required by the FQPA.

This Article introduces the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and describes chemical substances for which testing could be conducted under TSCA, chemical testing that could be required, persons required to conduct the tests, procedures that have been considered for selecting test chemicals, and associated legal challenges.

Editors' Summary:

Editors' Summary: There are increasing calls for significant reform of how chemicals are regulated in the United States. The advent of the European Registration, Evaluation, Authorization, and Restriction of Chemicals system, rapid commercialization of nano-enabled products, increased consumer awareness, and proliferation of retailer initiatives have all fundamentally changed the chemical regulatory landscape.