Advanced Materials and Technologies

News & Updates

Newsletter

Advanced Materials and Technologies Speciality Group (AMTSG)
Meeting Minutes (12/19)

Society for Risk Analysis

Spring Update!

MEETING NOTES (Dec 2019 Business Luncheon)

1. Specialty Group Transition: Advanced Materials and Technologies Specialty Group

• November 2018, Council approved transition from the “Emerging Nanoscale Materials Specialty Group” (ENMSG) to the “Advanced Materials and Technologies Specialty Group” (AMTSG).
• Built great momentum for 2019 meeting. Special thanks to Dr.’s Jo Anne Shatkin, Khara Grieger, Treye Thomas and Christie Sayes for their help organizing symposia for the 2019 meeting.
• Looking forward, we hope to build on this momentum and grow and expand the AMTSG.

2. Priorities for AMTSG in 2020

Volunteers are needed for: 1) Organizing sessions and potential workshop for 2020 SRA Annual Meeting; 2) Nominations for AMTSG officers; 3) Update to AMTSG materials; and 4) Outreach to grow AMTSG including organizations to collaborate. Please contact James Ede (jede@vireoadvisors.com) and Christie Sayes (christie_sayes@baylor.edu) if you would like to volunteer with the AMTSG!

(i) Recruit an engaged leadership for the coming year

• We are transitioning; good leadership will be key to our success;
• Looking for nominations of Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer;
• Encourage anyone who wants to become more involved with the group, or who has more questions about these roles to contact James Ede. An overview of what is expected for each role is below:

• Chair: Chair an Annual AMTSG Meeting at the Annual Meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis; work with SRA officials to organize AMTSG meetings or panels; coordinate and encourage the development of symposia for the annual meeting; and take other actions that are in the interest of the AMTSG.
• Vice-Chair: The Vice-Chair serves as the Chair-Elect and may stand in for the Chair at a meeting should the Chair be unavailable.
• Secretary/Treasurer: Maintain a record of actions of the AMTSG’s Officers and the meeting; working as appropriate with the SRA Secretariat; maintain the financial records of the AMTSG; and communicate relevant information to the AMTSG membership.

(ii) Planning symposia for SRA 2020 meeting (Austin, Texas December 13-17, 2020)

• Key effort for the coming year is planning symposia for the 2020 annual meeting. Ideas were solicited from members on topics they would like to see. We are currently recruiting volunteers to help plan symposia.
• AMTSG members also suggested potentially holding a workshop at the 2020 Austin meeting.
• Potential symposia topics for SRA 2020:

1. Risk analysis of nanomaterials: Where have we been, lessons learned, and transfer of knowledge to new and emerging technologies – Part 2

-build on momentum from this year’s symposium; could be worked into a position paper and potentially workshop

2. Overview of emerging technologies and risk analysis issues associated with each

-key talks from each emerging technology: artificial intelligence, nanomaterials, green chemistries, synthetic biology, additive manufacturing, robotics

3. Risks associated with consumer applications of new technologies

-consumer exposure to 3D printing applications in the home and potential risks: exposure concerns, durability, storage

-policy & jurisdictional questions for consumer manufacturing: CPSC? NIOSH?

-impacts of connected software and consumer data: risks from new consumer products and data management

4. How do we communicate the risks of new materials and technologies from professionals to those who are not?

-risk education and training for consumers using new technologies (e.g. 3D printing – occupational health and safety training for home manufacturing)

5. Nano 2.0

-current status, approaches, and efforts related to the risk analysis of nanomaterials & where the field is heading

6. Government approaches to advanced materials and technologies

-invite federal agencies to provide input on their approaches to evaluating the risks of advanced materials and technologies: NIOSH, CPSC, FDA, USDA, Health Canada, ECCC

7. Microplastics

-various aspects of microplastics risk assessment: detection, hazard, exposure, communication

-We encourage any AMTSG members to contact James Ede and Christie Sayes if they are interested in helping to organize, or participate in the above symposia, or if they have additional suggestions for symposia topics.

-Goal for coming meeting will be to encourage a variety of stakeholder participation, including industry.

(iii) Planning potential workshop for SRA 2020 meeting

-Members suggested potentially holding a workshop at the 2020 meeting to encourage participation from several stakeholders including academics, industry, consumer advocacy groups, and regulators

-Potential topic: Using Lessons Learned from Nanomaterials as Model for Stakeholders to Work Together on Safety of Advanced Materials and Technologies

-Safety as responsibility of all stakeholders; how they can collaborate;

-Incorporating safety early into product R&D to change the paradigm.

(iv) Update to AMTSG materials

-Activities for 2020 include:

-updating specialty group SRA website;

-revisiting our groups bylaws to reflect our new expanded scope;

-members highlighted an important task will be defining the scope of the AMTSG. This could feed into what defines ‘Advanced Materials’ and could include a position piece on the group’s website;

-updating resource page.

(v) Outreach other professional organizations for collaboration and to grow AMTSG membership

-members highlighted an important goal for 2020 should be to grow the AMTSG membership;

-one strategy is to target professional organizations with a similar scope for collaboration – including future symposia and workshops.

-American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists

-American Chemical Society

3. Update to SRA Annual Meeting Planning

-This year, the SRA executive will be changing how the annual meeting is planned;

-No in-person program committee meeting will be held. Instead, program planning will occur through remote creation of sessions, with a goal of half the sessions being interdisciplinary between Specialty Groups;

-Both Dr.’s James Ede and Christie Sayes are on this year’s program committee;

-Keywords are proposed to help sort and build symposia;

-Details on how to sort, review and build symposia is ongoing.