On January 14, 2007, the New York Times published Barnaby Feder’s article regarding Berkeley California’s new nano hazardous material handling regulation. The article succinctly summarizes the regulation: "[T]he new regulation . . . requires businesses to annually identify . . . any materials they use or produce with at least one dimension of 100 nanometers or less, no matter how small the quantities. They must also share what they know about how toxic the particles might be and describe procedures for tracking, handling and disposing of them." We have previously posted on Berkeley’s ordinance here and here. Additionally, our more detailed analysis will be published in the February edition of Nature Nanotechnology, under the working title "The Perils of Pre-emptive Regulation." We use the article to address five potentially problematic issues raised by Berkeley’s new regulation. Look here for a link to the article as soon as it comes out.
