According to the International Organisation for Standardisation, nanotechnology is "the science of engineering matter at the atomic and molecular stage". There is still no agreed definition of nanomaterials, but the current working definition is materials having at least one dimension of 100 nanometres or less. As a comparison, a human hair is generally described as 80,000 nanometres wide.

Materials manufactured or engineered at this level have unique properties and behave differently from conventional matter. This stems from two factors; their increased relative surface area and new quantum effects. Their greater surface area to volume ratio leads to increased chemical reactivity and resistance, whilst at nano scale quantum effects lead to unique optical, electrical and magnetic behaviours.

  Did you know? The width of a human hair is 80,000 nanometres

Researchers and developers are talking about how nanotechnology can be applied in everyday life. For example, in the near future nanomaterials could be used to develop lighter and stronger materials, better batteries and improved solar cells. In the longer term they could be used for cancer treatments, microscopic sensors and tiny surveillance tools.

The potential of nanotechnology to deliver environmental benefits - both in products and processes - has been widely recognised. For example, in the future nanomaterials could be used to make devices to measure pollution, helping prevent pollution and toxic emissions at source. Also, nanomaterials could be used as a substitute to raw materials, to create environmentally sound alternatives to current practices, and as a lightweight alternative for transportation and other uses.

As a result of their unique properties, developers are also coming up with many imaginative applications for nanomaterials which they can try and sell us, such as socks that don't smell, clothes that don't stain, transparent sunscreens and self-cleaning windows! The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies lists an inventory of more than 500 manufacturer-identified nanotechnology-based consumer products currently on the market.

The problem with the majority of these innovations - as well as fuelling consumer demand for pointless products - is that the majority of them have never been properly tested for their impact on human health and the environment. They are manufactured, placed on the market and disposed of without enough understanding of the potentially adverse and unpredictable risks they pose to workers and consumers, as well as wildlife and the environment.

Whilst the potential benefits of nanotechnology are widely accepted, it is also important that the full implications of this emerging field are assessed to ensure that nanomaterials emerge as instruments of environmental sustainability, not liability. There are increasing concerns that nanotechnologies will bring new risks to human health and the environment that we are ill-equipped to deal with.

We already understand enough about the potential risks posed by nanomaterials to know that they pose different risks to human health and the environment than conventional bulk materials, but we lack the information to conduct even the most basic risk analyses. Despite this, very few resources have been directed towards investigating the health and environmental risks of nanomaterials. For example, whilst more than US $1 billion was spent on nanotech research in the U.S. in 2006, only US $38.5 million was used to study the effects of nanoparticles on humans and the environment. In the EU, the European Commission's combined 5th and 6th Framework Programmes (FP 5 and FP6) allocated only € 28 million to projects specifically devoted to safety out of a total of € 1.6 billion spent on nanotechnology research (2%).

  Did you know? More than $1 billion was spent on nanotech research in the U.S.
       in 2006

Friends of the Earth Europe believes that a precautionary approach must be taken to nanotechnology. The focus of research should be on the protection of public health and worker safety, and the safeguarding of the natural environment. Discussions and decision-making should be transparent and should take full consideration of the social and ethical impacts of nanotechnology. Developers and manufacturers must be responsible for the safety of their products and processes and there should be open and meaningful public participation at every level.

Friends of the Earth Europe is concerned about the fact that nanotechnology is being developed and commercialised in a regulatory vacuum, with products, such as nanoparticles and other nanomaterials, being manufactured and released into the environment with inadequate, or non-existent, health and safety testing or environmental impact assessment. Friends of the Earth Europe believes that the current EU regulatory frameworks do not provide adequate control of nanomaterials, and that substantial regulatory changes in existing laws are necessary in order to adequately address the fundamentally different properties of nanomaterials and new challenges that they present. Therefore Friends of the Earth Europe is calling for the following;  

	a moratorium on the release of nanomaterials and the use of nanotech applications until a  regulatory framework is created, or the existing legislation is adapted, to ensure the safe development of nanotechnologies
	more public funding of research to produce reliable environmental health and safety data assessing the entire life cycle of nanotechnology products
	strict definitions of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials to be agreed internationally
	regulators to reassess what size classes of particles should be subject to nano-specific health and environmental testing
	manufactured nanoparticles to be introduced separately to the relevant pieces of legislation in order to reflect their unique properties
	mandatory labeling of nanotech products
	all who market nano-products, or sell nano-containing products to the public must be held accountable for liabilities incurred by their products.

FoEE, together with Friends of the Earth Australia and Friends of the Earth US, are signatories of the document, 'Principles of the Oversight of Nanotechologies and Nanomaterials' which sets a precautionary approach to the emerging science of nanotechnology.

For further information please contact Patricia Cameron from BUND (Friends of the Earth Germany) at patricia.cameron@bund.net or Georgia Miller from Friends of the Earth Australia at georgia.miller@foe.org.au

Home | About us | Members | Campaigns | Events | Media | Publications | Links | Contact | Internal