Our demands

Because of risks health and environmental issues associated with nanomaterials, it is urgent to act, because large quantities of nanomaterials are released into the environment and mixed with the hundreds of thousands of synthetic chemical substances that are already present there.

To  avoid repeating past mistakes, it is necessary to deploy:

• better knowledge of the nature and volume of nanomaterials put on the market (via the improvement of the r-nano register in France andregistration of nanomaterials at European level)
• research efforts on risks nanomaterials (with a financial contribution from companies that produce and use nanomaterials),
• information and training actions (with health professionals but also public and private decision-makers),
• as well as concrete prevention and precautionary measures, by making evaluations of nanomaterials compulsory before they are marketed and by authorizing only certain nanomaterials… and only for specific and essential uses for which the benefit/risk proves favorable.

Action 13 of the National Health-Environment Plan (PNSE 4) published in 2021 is in line with this, but there is a lot to do, little time and money.

Everyone has a role to play : residents, consumers, researchers, associations, trade unions, public authorities, companies, media, etc. AVICENN do your part... 

• la open letter from AVICENN sent mid-March 2023 at the European Commission, co-signed by 16 other NGOs, about our product tests and the need to inform and protect citizens from the risks related to nanomaterials
• the 3 request series for more knowledge, more transparency and more vigilance, listed at the end of our report Investigation of nanos in everyday products published in December 2022
• the 20 civil society proposals for reducing exposure to nanomaterials compiled in June 2019 by AVICENN as part of the prefiguration of the 4th national health-environment plan (PNSE 4)
• faster and more pleasant to read, our mini-comic designed by Géraldine Grammon, published in 2017
• our eleven proposals compiled between 2015 and 2017 by AVICENN, in partnership with its associate members and other civil society actors or members of risk assessment and management bodies within the framework of the labeling / restriction of nanomaterials working group led by the Ministry of the environment
• la open letter that we sent to the government in July 2017, with CIEL, FNE, ORGECO 54, APE, WECF, C2DS and CIEAS
• our book « Nanomaterials and risks to health and the environment – ​​Let's be vigilant! » published in 2016

• la open letter sent in February 2022 by AVICENN and fourteen other NGOs to the European Commission to request clarification and improvement of its definition of the term “nanomaterials”
• la letter sent in October 2021 to the Minister for Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, with a view to seizing the opportunity of the French presidency of the European Union to intensify transparency and vigilance on nanomaterials and the associated risks
• la contribution from AVICENN posted in June 2021 as part of the European consultation on the definition of the term “nanomaterial”
• la AVICENN's answer sent in June 2020 to the consultation of the European Commission on its roadmap presenting the new sustainable strategy in the field of chemicals (“Chemical strategy for sustainability”)

• the intervention of AVICENN "Registration and evaluation of nanomaterials in REACH: What results?" What challenges to overcome? » made to the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) on October 3, 2019 as part of the referral: "Risk management: what conclusions can be drawn from REACH with regard to the initial ambitions?" »