Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA)

The Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (BAuA) initiates, coordinates and conducts research and development with the objective of improving safety and health at work. The BAuA is involved in the development of technical guidelines on safe working conditions and promotes the transfer of knowledge into practice. BAuA's Department 4 "hazardous substances and biological agents" conducts research on the release of respirable particles of synthetic nanomaterials and other innovative materials, on their effect on the human organism, and on measures for the safe use of such substances. BAuA's Unit 4.5, which runs a nano laboratory in Berlin, has many years of expertise in the fields of detection and characterization of fibrous materials and nanomaterials. The focus of its work is on the development of suitable, effort-optimized measurement strategies for the determination of the concentration of airborne nanoparticles and nanofibers, being a prerequisite for the assessment of inhalative exposures of employees. BAuA develops its expertise in cooperation with partners from industry and research in the context of publicly-funded joint projects. Unit 4.5 has been contributing to the projects CarboSafe and CarboLifeCycle (BMBF) and NanoDevice, NanoValid, NanoGEM, NanoIndEx and NANoREG (EU FP7) and is involved in developing portable personal particle measurement technology. BAuA supports research institutions, industrial companies and start-ups that work with nanomaterials and other innovative materials with know-how on risk assessment and on-site measurements of particle emissions in workplaces.