Risk, Environmental, Health and Safety
Events
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events/archive
December 1, 2010
Nanotechnology Research Directions for Societal Needs in 2020
Release of a new report,“Nanotechnology Research Directions for Societal Needs in 2020” (Eds. M. Roco, C. Mirkin and M. Hersam), Springer, 2010.
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events/archive
February 4, 2010
Contaminated Site Remediation: Are Nanomaterials the Answer?
A new review article appearing in Environmental Health Perspectives focuses on the use of nanomaterials for environmental cleanup. The authors conclude that the technology could be an effective and economically viable alternative for some current site cleanup practices, but potential risks remain poorly understood.
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events/archive
September 23, 2009
Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation: Securing the Promise of Nanotechnologies
Nanotechnology will impact our lives on a global scale. Over the past year experts from the London School of Economics, Chatham House, Environmental Law Institute and the Project have been examining issues of transatlantic regulatory cooperation.
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events/archive
April 28, 2009
Oversight of Next Generation Nanotechnology
When the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was founded, automobiles ran on leaded gasoline without catalytic converters. A landmark report by J. Clarence Davies, Oversight of Next Generation Nanotechnology, describes how existing health and safety agencies are unable to cope with the risk assessment, standard setting and oversight challenges of 21st century technology.
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events/archive
January 14, 2009
Nanotech and Your Daily Vitamins
Historically, the regulation of dietary supplements has been a significant challenge for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the fact that some of these products are now being manufactured using nanotechnology creates an additional layer of complexity. Is FDA equipped to meet the emerging regulatory challenge of dietary supplements that use engineered nanomaterials?
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events/archive
January 8, 2009
Synthetic Biology: Is Ethics a Showstopper?
Synthetic biology promises to enable cheap, lifesaving new drugs to treat the 350-500 million people who suffer from malaria, and to create innovative biofuels that can help solve the world’s energy problems. But are synthetic biologists playing God? Will synthetic biology’s expected products and profits be stymied by policymakers and the public? Join us and explore these unresolved questions with Dr. Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania.
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events/archive
November 14, 2008
Synthetic Biology: Coming up Fast!
Synthetic biology is being touted by scientists and venture capitalists as “the next big thing.” Researchers claim to be on the brink of creating artificial life in a laboratory and making the world’s first synthetic microbes. But will the promises and pitfalls of synthetic biology catch governments, ethicists, biosafety and biosecurity experts, and the public by surprise?
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events/archive
July 23, 2008
Nanotechnology and Oversight: An Agenda for the New Administration
Few domestic policy areas that the new administration must address will have greater long-range consequences than nanotechnology — a new technology that has been compared with the industrial revolution in terms of its impact on society. If the right decisions are made, nanotechnology will bring vast improvements to almost every area of daily living. If the wrong decisions are made, the American economy, human health and the environment will suffer.
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events/archive
June 5, 2008
*POSTPONED - Small is Beautiful: A European View of Nanotech Cosmetics and Safety
BusinessWeek magazine claims the $60 billion international beauty products industry is “making a big bet on nanotech.” Today, nearly a hundred cosmetics are in the Project’s online inventory of consumer products. How does a company like Paris-based cosmetics leader L’Oreal—which ranks No. 6 among nanotechnology patent holders in the U.S.— apply “The Precautionary Principle” to nanotechnology cosmetic products?
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events/archive
May 1, 2008
International Council on Nanotechnology Launches Global Research Needs Assessment
Last year, more than 70 experts from 13 countries - in academia, industry, governments and non-governmental agencies - accepted that challenge. In an unprecedented international collaboration, the International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON) convened two workshops aimed at defining a set of research needs for assessing potential nanotechnology impacts.
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events/archive
April 2, 2008
New Nanotechnology Television Series Does “Sweat the Small Stuff”
The Project and National Science Foundation will host the Washington, DC, premiere event for the television series “Nanotechnology: The Power of Small”. The series’ three programs explore critical questions about nanotechnology’s potential impact on privacy, the environment and human health and will include remarks by U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, a co-chair of the Congressional Nanotechnology Caucus.
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events/archive
October 9, 2007
Responsible NanoCode
You are invited to the US launch of an international consultation on a new Code for Responsible Nanotechnology aimed principally at businesses and research organizations.
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events/archive
July 26, 2007
Where Does the Nano Go? New Report on End-of-Life Regulation of Nanotechnologies
Please join us on July 26, 2007, for the release of this report featuring the authors, along with Leslie Carothers, President of the Environmental Law Institute, and David Rejeski, Director, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. The discussion will focus on the end-of-life regulation of nanotechnologies.
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events/archive
June 21, 2007
Environmental Defense and DuPont to Jointly Launch Risk Framework
Environmental Defense and DuPont invite you to the launch of the Nano Risk Framework, a tool for evaluating and addressing the potential risks of nanoscale materials.
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events/archive
June 11, 2007
Perspectives on Nanotechnology: Business, Government and Public Health
Scientists have hailed nanotechnology as the next great scientific revolution, poised to create revolutionary changes in the daily lives of people worldwide. At an event hosted by the Project at the Dirksen Senate Office building, a panel of experts offered different perspectives on the budding potential of nanotechnology, but also cautioned that exploiting the unpredictable properties materials exhibit at the nanoscale may have as much potential to harm as to help.
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