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Toxic warnings for nano industry
Hundreds of nanotechnology products about to hit shop shelves have not been properly tested for their safety, a top workplace and environmental health expert has warned. Edinburgh-based Professor Anthony Seaton said concerns tiny particles from the products might cause respiratory, cardiac and immune problems had not been properly assessed. Prof Seaton was speaking just weeks after the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) launched a consultation on plans to ask companies developing products such as sunscreens, paints and fuels that use nanoparticles to provide health and safety information. He told The Scotsman: 'The technology and applications of nanoparticles are racing ahead and still we haven't actually put together a proper research programme into the effect of nanoparticles on the biological system. We don't know enough to know which nanoparticles would be harmful.' Greenpeace UK's chief scientist, Doug Barr, said the government should impose a moratorium on the release of products with free nanoparticles - ones not bound up in a compound, as most are - until evidence of their safety emerged, ideally from publicly funded studies. 'Industry data rarely provides the whole story. On what basis do we think the nanotechnology industry is going to tell Defra things that are not in its commercial interest to disclose?' he said. Prof Seaton said many nanotechnology companies were small spin-offs from academic institutions and could not afford elaborate health and safety research. During his address to a Eurpoean nanotechnology conference this month, he warned that 'very little' was known about the health impacts of nanoparticles engineered at small scales and that industry should take his comments as a 'warning shot'. He said he was concerned about the safety of lab workers as well as consumers.
- The Scotsman. BBC News Online. Environmental News Network.
- Hazards nanotechnology news and resources.
Briefing document (400 words) issued 12 May 2006
