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Conference on Chemical Safety and Nanomaterials

Introduction

 

Introduction to the International Conference on Chemical Safety and Nanomaterials At the end of each important chemical safety project Slovenia traditionally organised a conference with broad national and international participation. The primary goal was to present the outputs of the project, get a feedback and share/exchange experiences with the participants from Slovenia and from other countries, as well as with important international stakeholders. Such an event also presented an opportunity for stimulation of an overall cooperation and consequentially for further development of chemical safety in the involved countries. This year's conference will took place on 4th - 5th September 2006 in Hotel Kokra, Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia. The conference was the final step of an intensive project Phare Twinning “Chemical Safety II”, No. SI 03 IB EC 02, which was supported by the European Commission. The main twinning partners Slovenia and Austria with about 60 short term experts from 10 EU Member States worked together with numerous experts from the Slovene working groups in different intersectoral priority areas of chemical safety. In addition to the regular chemical safety issues, a special Thematic Session on Nanosafety was organized on the first day of the conference because of the high interest. The use of chemicals in the “nano” form in many segments of everyday life is rapidly growing and can bring great benefits. However, chemicals in the “nano” form can have very different properties and behaviour from those of chemicals in the usual form. Therefore this has to be carefully examined in parallel so that safety of workers, users and the environment is ensured. Due to the fact that the “nano” might considerably change the foundations of chemical safety and of the toxicology as such, it is necessary to start a broad communication among the stakeholders, including the users. Only better understanding of pros and cons associated with nanotechnology can build confidence of users so that the positive properties of these materials can be exploited to the maximum extent possible and the negative impacts can be minimized.   TO WHOM THE CONFERENCE IS OF INTEREST: - national stakeholders from governmental and non-governmental sides, - representatives of EU Member States and the EU Candidate Countries, - representatives of other countries, - representatives of the EU and international bodies. LANGUAGE OF THE MEETING: English and Slovene (simultaneous translation will be provided)