Risk, Environmental, Health and Safety
Publications
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publications/archive
April 28, 2009
PEN 18 - Oversight of Next Generation Nanotechnology
Existing health and safety agencies are unable to cope with the risk assessment, standard setting and oversight challenges of advancing nanotechnology.
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publications/archive
April 6, 2009
Toward a Comprehensive Strategy for Nanotechnology Risk Communication
The last in a trio of studies: Cultural Cognition and Nanotechnology Risk Perceptions: An Experimental Investigation of Message Framing, asks what science will reveal about the risks and benefits of nanotechnology and what conclusions members of the public will form? It takes an in depth look at the power of information framing to accentuate or mitigate cultural polarization.
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publications/archive
January 27, 2009
PEN 16 - Nanotechnology: The Social and Ethical Issues
“It is crucial to address social and ethical issues now as we consider both the substantial potential risks of nanotechnology and its possible significant contributions to our well-being and environmental sustainability,” says report author Ronald Sandler. PEN 16 emphasizes ways in which these issues intersect with governmental functions and responsibilities, including science and technology policy, as well as research funding, regulation and work on public engagement.
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publications/archive
January 14, 2009
PEN 17 - A Hard Pill to Swallow
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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publications/archive
December 9, 2008
Federal Government Nanotechnology Environment, Health and Safety Research
Federal risk-research funding options for moving forward under the next administration
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publications/archive
September 18, 2008
Poll: Risks and Benefits of Nanotechnology & Synthetic Biology
A groundbreaking poll finds that almost half of U.S. adults have heard nothing about nanotechnology, and nearly nine in 10 Americans say they have heard just a little or nothing at all about the emerging field of synthetic biology, according to a new report released by the Project and Peter D. Hart Research. Both technologies involve manipulating matter at an incredibly small scale to achieve something new.
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publications/archive
September 9, 2008
PEN 15 - Silver Nanotechnologies and the Environment
Widespread use of nanoscale silver will challenge regulatory agencies to balance important potential benefits against the possibility of significant environmental risk, highlighting the need to identify research priorities concerning this emerging technology, according to a new report released today by the Project.
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publications/archive
August 21, 2008
PEN 14 - The Consumer Products Safety Commission and Nanotechnology
The inability of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to carry out its mandate with respect to simple, low-tech products such as children’s jewelry and toy trains bodes poorly for its ability to oversee the safety of complex, high-tech products made using nanotechnology, according to E. Marla Felcher.
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publications/archive
July 23, 2008
PEN 13 - Nanotechnology Oversight
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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publications/archive
June 25, 2008
Assuring the Safety of Nanomaterials in Food Packaging
Engineered nanoscale materials (ENMs), which contain novel properties that offer potential benefits for use in food packaging, raise new safety evaluation challenges for regulators and industry. The report examines the path of a number of hypothetical nanotechnology food packaging applications through the current regulatory system.
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publications/archive
May 1, 2008
How to Reduce Your Firm’s Risk and Increase Revenues Related to Nanotechnology
With limited time and resources, how can your firm start to think about or expand on its environmental, health, and safety (EHS) practices related to the use of nanomaterials? This pamphlet presents eight suggestions to assist nano firms in addressing EHS issues associated with the production and use of nanomaterials.
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publications/archive
April 24, 2008
Congressional Testimony - National Nanotechnology Initiative: Charting the Course for Reauthorization
New nanotechnology consumer products are coming on the market at the rate of three to four per week, a finding based on the latest update to the nanotechnology consumer product inventory. Today, in testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, PEN Project Director David Rejeski cited Ace Silver Plus—another of the nine nano toothpastes in the inventory—as an example of the upsurge in nanotechnology consumer products in stores. The hearing marks the start of U.S. Senate debate on the future direction of the annual $1.5 billion federal investment in nanotechnology research and development .
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publications/archive
April 9, 2008
PEN 11 - Room at the Bottom?
State and local governments often have adopted trailblazing initiatives to address environmental, health and safety concerns in advance or in lieu of federal action. With nanotechnology, an emerging field of science with unknown risks, this practice is continuing, a landmark study has found.
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publications/archive
February 28, 2008
First Annual Conference on Nanotechnology Law, Regulation and Policy
Keynote address from Michael R. Taylor at the First Annual Conference on Nanotechnology Law, Regulation and Policy.
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publications/archive
February 26, 2008
Application of the Toxics Release Inventory to Nanomaterials
This research brief examines whether the legal authorities that establish the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) in the Emergency Planning and Community-Right to-Know Act (EPCRA) could be applied to nanomaterials. Although several organizations have published analyses of whether specific environmental laws could be used to regulate nanomaterials, none of these reviews has examined EPCRA or TRI in any detail.