Bernd Nowack
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View article: Safe and Sustainable-by-Design under The European Green Deal — Regulatory Readiness or Pressure for Companies?
Safe and Sustainable-by-Design under The European Green Deal — Regulatory Readiness or Pressure for Companies? Open
The European Green Deal, popular for its “2050 climate neutrality” target, also postulates the “zero pollution ambition for a toxic-free environment”, supported through the Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability (CSS). The CSS mentions Safe…
View article: Methods and tools for the safety assessment part of the European Commission’s safe and sustainable by design framework when applied to advanced materials
Methods and tools for the safety assessment part of the European Commission’s safe and sustainable by design framework when applied to advanced materials Open
The Safe and Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) framework by the EC-JRC (European Commission - Joint Research Centre) provides a structured approach to integrate safety and sustainability considerations from the earliest stages of chemical and m…
View article: From Ambition to Action: Navigating Obstacles and Opportunities of “Safe and Sustainable by Design”
From Ambition to Action: Navigating Obstacles and Opportunities of “Safe and Sustainable by Design” Open
With the introduction of "Safe and Sustainable by Design" (SSbD), momentum is created in Europe to shift from the reactive (mis)management of chemicals and materials toward a more proactive design and assessment approach to preventing poll…
View article: Data-Driven Prediction of Nanoparticle Biodistribution from Physicochemical Descriptors
Data-Driven Prediction of Nanoparticle Biodistribution from Physicochemical Descriptors Open
Nanoparticles have gained significant attention in biomedicine, electronics, and environmental science due to their unique physicochemical properties, which critically influence their absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion beh…
View article: Reconciling plastic release: Comprehensive modeling of macro- and microplastic flows to the environment
Reconciling plastic release: Comprehensive modeling of macro- and microplastic flows to the environment Open
Plastic pollution is a major environmental challenge of the 21st century. Addressing this issue requires a clear understanding of environmental emissions. Combining material flow analysis with release assessments provides an effective way …
View article: Regulatory challenges and risk assessment of graphene-enabled products: insights for safe commercialisation in Europe
Regulatory challenges and risk assessment of graphene-enabled products: insights for safe commercialisation in Europe Open
The development of graphene-enabled products in a variety of industrial sectors like medical devices, textiles, aerospace, or food contact materials has raised significant regulatory challenges with regards to risk assessment. The work per…
View article: The safe and sustainable by design framework applied to graphene-based materials
The safe and sustainable by design framework applied to graphene-based materials Open
The shift toward a sustainable and toxic-free future requires integrating safety and sustainability aspects across the entire lifecycle of chemicals and materials. The Safe and Sustainable by Design (SSbD) framework, developed by the Europ…
View article: Form-Specific Prospective Environmental Risk Assessment of Graphene-Based Materials in European Freshwater
Form-Specific Prospective Environmental Risk Assessment of Graphene-Based Materials in European Freshwater Open
As graphene-based materials (GBMs) such as pristine graphene, graphene oxide, and reduced graphene oxide show great potential to be integrated in various applications, the need for environmental risk assessments grows, aiming to navigate t…
View article: Using dynamic release modeling to predict historic and current macro- and microplastic releases
Using dynamic release modeling to predict historic and current macro- and microplastic releases Open
Confronting the pervasive challenge of plastic pollution, our study pioneers a dynamic release model to quantify the historic and current plastic emissions. Utilizing Dynamic Probabilistic Material Flow Analysis (DPMFA) coupled to a releas…
View article: Resolving complexity: Material flow analysis of a national wood flow system integrating the versatility of wood
Resolving complexity: Material flow analysis of a national wood flow system integrating the versatility of wood Open
A systemic understanding of the use of wood resources is required to defossilize society and promote bio‐based developments. This study provides a novel approach to represent a comprehensive material flow analysis (MFA) spanning the entire…
View article: Bridging the gap: Innovative human-based in vitro approaches for nanomaterials hazard assessment and their role in safe and sustainable by design, risk assessment, and life cycle assessment
Bridging the gap: Innovative human-based in vitro approaches for nanomaterials hazard assessment and their role in safe and sustainable by design, risk assessment, and life cycle assessment Open
The application of nanomaterials in industry and consumer products is growing exponentially, which has pressed the development and use of predictive human in vitro models in pre-clinical analysis to closely extrapolate potential toxic effe…
View article: Formation of nanoparticles during accelerated UV degradation of fleece polyester textiles
Formation of nanoparticles during accelerated UV degradation of fleece polyester textiles Open
Micro- and nanoplastics have emerged as critical pollutants in various ecosystems, posing potential environmental and human health risks. Washing of polyester textiles has been identified as one of the sources of nanoplastics. However, oth…
View article: Macroplastic Fate and Transport Modeling: Freshwaters Act as Main Reservoirs
Macroplastic Fate and Transport Modeling: Freshwaters Act as Main Reservoirs Open
Macroplastic fate and transport in the freshwater environment are of great concern due to the potentially harmful effects of macroplastic on plants, animals, and humans. Here, we present a modeling approach to simulate macroplastic fate an…
View article: Differences in the release of microplastic fibers and fibrils from virgin and recycled polyester textiles
Differences in the release of microplastic fibers and fibrils from virgin and recycled polyester textiles Open
Both washing and abrasion result in release of fibers from polyester textiles. The aim of this work was to investigate how fabrics made from recycled polyester compare to those made from virgin polyester. We analyzed microplastic fibers (M…
View article: Oligomers are a major fraction of the submicrometre particles released during washing of polyester textiles
Oligomers are a major fraction of the submicrometre particles released during washing of polyester textiles Open
Synthetic textiles are a significant source of microplastic fibre pollution. While the microplastic fibre release mechanism during the washing of textiles is well studied, little is known about the release of nanoplastics. The first invest…
View article: From cracks to secondary microplastics - surface characterization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) during weathering
From cracks to secondary microplastics - surface characterization of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) during weathering Open
Secondary microplastics are a product of the fragmentation of plastic debris. Despite concerns regarding the omnipresence of microplastics in the environment, knowledge about the mechanics of their actual formation is still limited. Fragme…
View article: Safe-and-sustainable-by-design roadmap: identifying research, competencies, and knowledge sharing needs
Safe-and-sustainable-by-design roadmap: identifying research, competencies, and knowledge sharing needs Open
Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) roadmap for safe and sustainable chemicals, materials, products and process and a more sustainable future.
View article: Learning from Safe-by-Design for Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design: Mapping the current landscape of Safe-by-Design reviews, case studies, and frameworks
Learning from Safe-by-Design for Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design: Mapping the current landscape of Safe-by-Design reviews, case studies, and frameworks Open
With the introduction of the European Commission's "Safe and Sustainable-by-Design" (SSbD) framework, the interest in understanding the implications of safety and sustainability assessments of chemicals, materials, and processes at early-i…
View article: Conversational AI Tools for Environmental Topics: A Comparative Analysis of Different Tools and Languages for Microplastics, Tire Wear Particles, Engineered Nanoparticles and Advanced Materials
Conversational AI Tools for Environmental Topics: A Comparative Analysis of Different Tools and Languages for Microplastics, Tire Wear Particles, Engineered Nanoparticles and Advanced Materials Open
Artificial intelligence gained a surge in popularity through the release of conversational artificial intelligence tools, which enable individuals to use the technology without any prior knowledge or expertise in computational science. Res…
View article: The effect of the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic on the use of personal protective equipment in hospitals
The effect of the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic on the use of personal protective equipment in hospitals Open
The Covid pandemic has strongly affected the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the medical sector. Our aim was to assess the influence of Covid on PPE use within a German hospital by analyzing PPE use in four years prior to Cov…
View article: Predicting microplastic masses in river networks with high spatial resolution at country level
Predicting microplastic masses in river networks with high spatial resolution at country level Open
Microplastics are a ubiquitous contaminant of natural waters, and a lot of field monitoring is currently performed. However, what is missing so far is a general understanding how emissions of microplastics are linked to environmental expos…
View article: Developing trends in nanomaterials and their environmental implications
Developing trends in nanomaterials and their environmental implications Open
Nanotechnology is advancing at an accelerated pace in applications and novel nanomaterials. To become an enabling technology for a more sustainable society, we identify and assess nanomaterials and applications trends with potentially sign…
View article: 20 An Approach Towards in Vitro-Based Human Toxicity Effect Factors for the Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Inhaled Low-Solubility Particles.
20 An Approach Towards in Vitro-Based Human Toxicity Effect Factors for the Life Cycle Impact Assessment of Inhaled Low-Solubility Particles. Open
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) calculations of products containing nanomaterials are limited in their comprehensiveness by the lack of characterization factors linking nanomaterial emissions to their impacts on human health. This is mainly du…