On June 23, 2010, the California agency, the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), released a draft of the Green Chemistry Regulation for Safer Consumer Products. Incredibly, in the draft, DTSC proposes to redefine the nanoscale as: “Nanoscale” means one or more dimensions of the order of 1000 nanometers or less. " Yes, that's 1,000 nm you're reading!

Some other nano-related definitions that may interest you include the following:

“Nanomaterial” means any form of an engineered chemical, substance or material that is composed of a discrete nanostructure, which has one or more dimensions at the nanoscale.

“Nanostructure” means any engineered structure or feature that is composed of discrete functional parts, either internally or at the surface at nanoscale.

If you want to know more about the regulation or how to comment on it - comments are due by July 15 - point your browser to the following URL: http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/GreenChemistryInitiative/gc_draft_regs.cfm.

The regulation can be downloaded directly at: http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/PollutionPrevention/GreenChemistryInitiative/upload/Safer-Product-Alternative-Regulations-6-23-10.pdf

Cheers!