An environmental group has brought a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to block the use of antimicrobial nanosilver in clothing and baby products due to its dangerous effects on health and the environment.
According to the National Law Journal (suscription required), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed the lawsuit against the EPA alleging that nanosilver is highly toxic and has not yet been adequately tested for safety. Unlike white silver, a similar substance used in pesticides, nanosilver is smaller in size and can penetrate organs and tissues in the body, the lawsuit alleges.
The action by the NDRC was spurred in part by an EPA ruling last December that conditionally approved the use of nanosilver as a textile preservative for the next four years. Citing the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, which allows that allows an agency decision to be challenged at the circuit court level, the NRDC is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to overrule the EPA's decision.
"[The] EPA's approval of nanosilver is just the most recent example in a long line of decisions that treats humans and our environment as guinea pigs," the lawsuit states, according to the Journal.
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