Nanotech News

December 7, 2005

Monday’s Washington Post carried an article describing the current state of nanotechnology oversight/regulation/safety. The first two paragraphs capture it well.

Amid growing evidence that some of the tiniest materials ever engineered pose potentially big environmental, health and safety risks, momentum is building in Congress, environmental circles and in the industry itself to beef up federal oversight of the new materials, which are already showing up in dozens of consumer products.

But large gaps in scientists’ understanding of the materials are slowing the development of a regulatory scheme. Equally unresolved is who should pay for the additional safety studies that everyone agrees are needed.