February 20, 2009: The US Environmental Protection Agency will, beginning in March, enforce a requirement that companies file premanufacture notices if they manufacture or import carbon nanotubes, according to a summary of an article in the Bureau of National Affairs’ Daily Environment Report.

The report quotes Jessica Barkas, an attorney from the EPA’s Chemical Control Division, as saying the agency is placing conditions — such as development of toxicity data, requiring carbon nanotubes to be embedded in a polymer or metal structure and requiring workers to use protective equipment — on firms that want to make new nanoscale chemicals.

Lynn Bergeson, an attorney speaking at a nanotech law conference this week, said the EPA considers carbon nanotubes to be “chemical substances distinct from graphite or other allotropes of carbon listed on the [Toxic Substances Control Act] Inventory.”

Barkas also said the EPA will eventually shift from its “current focus of collecting information to a focus of controlling risks.”