title: ÉquiNanos: innovative team for nanoparticle risk management.
abstract: Interactions between nanoparticles (NP), humans and the environment are not fully understood yet. Moreover, frameworks aiming at protecting human health have not been adapted to NP but are nonetheless applied to NP-related activities. Consequently, business organizations currently have to deal with NP-related risks despite the lack of a proven effective method of risk-management. To respond to these concerns and fulfill the needs of populations and industries, ÉquiNanos was created as a largely interdisciplinary provincial research team in Canada. ÉquiNanos consists of eight platforms with different areas of action, from adaptive decision-aid tool to public and legal governance, while including biological monitoring. ÉquiNanos resources aim at responding to the concerns of the Quebec nanotechnology industry and public health authorities. Our mandate is to understand the impact of NP on human health in order to protect the population against all potential risks emerging from these high-priority and rapidly expanding innovative technologies.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  In this paper by Canadian authors an important framework is discussed with the goal of acquiring more detailed information and establishing an infrastructure to evaluate the interaction between nanoparticles and living organisms, with the ultimate goal of safety and risk management of the rapidly growing fields of nanotechnology-based biological applications.
authors.affiliation: Mechanical Engineering Department, École de technologie supérieure, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. sylvie.nadeau@etsmtl.ca
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nadeau
authors.forename: Michèle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bouchard
authors.forename: Maximilien
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Debia
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: DeMarcellis-Warin
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hallé
authors.forename: Victor
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Songmene
authors.forename: Marie-Christine
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Therrien
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wilkinson
authors.forename: Barthélémy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Ateme-Nguema
authors.forename: Geneviève
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dufour
authors.forename: André
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dufresne
authors.forename: Julien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fatisson
authors.forename: Sami
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Haddad
authors.forename: Madjid
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hadioui
authors.forename: Jules
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kouam
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Morency
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tardif
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Viens
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Weichenthal
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Viau
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Camus
mesh_terms: D053758:Nanoparticles; D012308:Risk Management