Project Press Releases
- March 20, 2007pdfLife Cycle Assessment Essential to Nanotech Commercial DevelopmentLife cycle assessment (LCA) —a cradle-to-grave look at the health and environmental impact of a material, chemical, or product—is an essential tool for ensuring the safe, responsible, and sustainable commercialization of nanotechnology, U.S. and European experts conclude in a new report issued today.
- March 15, 2007pdfWilson Center & The Pew Charitable Trusts Expand Efforts to Address Potential Benefits, Risks of NanotechnologyWith nanotechnology being described by business and government leaders as “The Next Industrial Revolution,” the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts today announced they will expand their efforts to help industry, governments and the public reap nanotechnology’s benefits by better anticipating and managing possible environmental and health implications.
- March 14, 2007pdfNanotechnology Oversight Requires Thinking Outside the BoxWith hundreds of nanotechnology-enabled products already on the market and many more in the commercial pipeline, a new report by a former senior Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official urges policymakers to give greater attention to the challenges of crafting an oversight system that can effectively address health and safety issues particular to nanoscale materials and devices.
- March 7, 2007pdfSurvey Finds Emotional Reactions to Nanotechnology“The U.S. public’s perception of nanotechnology is up for grabs. It could divide along the lines of nuclear power, global warming and other contentious environmental issues absent a major public education and engagement effort by industry, government, civic groups and scientists. People who know little or nothing about ‘nanotechnology’ instantly react in an emotionally charged way to the concept, and their opinions divide along cultural lines as they learn more about iProfessor at Yale Law School.
- February 27, 2007pdfNanotech Promises Big Things for Poor—But Will Promises Be Kept?“Nanotechnology has the potential to generate enormous health benefits for the more than five billion people living in the developing world,” according to Dr. Peter A. Singer, senior scientist at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health and Professor of Medicine at University of Toronto. “Nanotechnology might provide less-industrialized countries with powerful new tools for diagnosing and treating disease, and might increase the availability of clean water.”
- February 6, 2007pdfNanotechnology Key to China's Future Economic Success“China is betting that their growing investment in nanoscience will help them capture a large share of what shortly will become a $3 trillion global market in nanotech manufactured goods, and that breakthroughs in nanotechnology research and commercialization will confer economic superpower status on the country that attains first mover advantage in this cutting-edge technology,” stated Richard P. Appelbaum, professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara. “The Chinese government clearly understands that enhanced nanotechnology research capacity and marketable innovation go hand-in-hand. Both are key to their strategy for future commercial success, economic competitiveness, and continued economic growth.”
- January 16, 2007pdfResearch Advances on Nanotech Workplace Health and Safety“Companies, workers and investors alike are being challenged by the uncertainties surrounding nanotechnology workplace safety. These uncertainties include lack of sound, scientific information on occupational risks, poorly determined perceptual risks, and hesitancy over nanotechnology oversight,” according to co-authors Andrew Maynard and David Y.H. Pui in an article in the latest issue of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research. This is a special journal issue devoted to nanoparticles and occupational health.
- January 4, 2007pdfNanotech Safety Needs Specific Govt. Risk Research Strategy and Funding“Prioritizing nanotechnology risk research isn’t rocket science,” said Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies chief scientist Andrew Maynard. Dr. Maynard’s remark is in his testimony today before the federal government’s first public meeting focused exclusively on research needs and priorities for the environmental, health and safety risks of engineered nanoscale materials.
- December 28, 2006pdfSafety Experts Ill-equipped to Handle Nanotechnology in WorkplaceA strategic plan and more resources for risk research are needed now in order to ensure safe nano-workplaces today and in the future. That is the conclusion of Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies Chief Science Advisor Andrew Maynard in a new article, “Nanotechnology and Safety” just released by Cleanroom Technology magazine. The article is available in the magazine’s December 2006 / January 2007 issue and is freely available online: http://www.cleanroomtechnology.co.uk.
- December 5, 2006pdfFormer White House Science Advisor Warns that Nanotechnology's Potential Threatened by Weak Public Education and Outreach“Nanoscale science and engineering promise to be as important as the steam engine, the transistor, and the Internet, and have the potential to revolutionize all other technologies” according to Neal Lane, former science advisor to U.S. President Bill Clinton. “But that outcome is not guaranteed.”
