Meeting report: hazard assessment for nanoparticles--report from an interdisciplinary workshop.

This short article reports the findings of a April 2006 nanotoxicology workshop held at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington, D.C. The workshop sought to answer the two questions, what is needed to understand the human health impacts of engineered nanoparticles and how is this information best obtained? Workshop participants noted the need to use existing in vivo toxicocologic tests because of their familiarity and interpretability, and that a standards set of nanoparticles should be validated by laboratories worldwide and made available for benchmarking tests for other newly created nanoparticles. Over the long term, research aimed at developing a mechanistic understanding of the numerous characteristics that influence nanoparticle toxicity was deemed essential, and the group made suggestions towards developing a general policy and strategic opportunities to accelerate the development and implementation of testing protocols