The Strategic Risk of Nanotechnology

January 24, 2008

There has been much talk and hand-wringing about health and environmental risks associated with nanotechnology, but fewer discussions focus on what is termed “strategic risk.” To begin to sort out strategic risks across sectors in which nanotechnology is being used, we developed a simple algorithm that takes into account some basic parameters, such as market penetration, exposure route (as a surrogate indicator of health risk), government oversight (or lack thereof), industry stewardship (or lack thereof), and the level of public scrutiny by media and/or NGOs. When we ran numbers through the formula, two sectors came out with a high value for strategic risk: cosmetics/sunscreens and dietary supplements. The food sector is saved (temporarily) by the lack of any real nano-engineered products on the market, but that could change very quickly and radically, given the long history of intense concern over genetic engineering in the food sector. In dealing with the strategic risk assessment of nanotechnologies, we need to be thinking more about combining narrative and computational approaches. (Nanotechnology Now)