By Porter Wright on Prior to adjourning for the Memorial Say recess, the Senate, on 05/24/2012, by a vote of 96-1, passed S. 3187, the "Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act", " To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to revise and extend the user-fee programs for prescription drugs and medical devices, to establish user-fee programs for … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on One June 9, the President’s Office of Budget and Management, United States Trade Representative, and Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a joint memorandum directed to all Executive branch departments and agencies entitled "Policy Principles for the U.S. Decision-Making Concerning Regulation and Oversight of Applications ofNanotechnology and Nanomaterials." The Policy Statement is important because it … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Presenting what looks to be a very interesting line-up of top-rate speakers, the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment, Energy, and Resources (Pesticides, Chemical Regulation, and Right-to-Know Committee) is presenting a webinar on January 27, 2011: Nano Governance: The Current State of Federal, State, and International Regulation Here is a summary of the webinar from … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This article originally appeared on the National Nanomanufacturing Network’s InterNano website on August 25, 2010. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported. Massachusetts’ Office of Technical Assistance and Technology (OTA) recently released its “OTA Technology Guidance Document: Nanotechnology – Considerations for Safe Development” which has been in development for the past couple of … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Following California’s lead, Wisconsin’s legislature recently formed a special committee to study the potential regulation of nanomaterials from an environmental, health, and safety perspective. Our readers will be interested in the committee’s membership and focus: Special Committee on Nanotechnology Chair: Rep. Chuck Benedict Vice Chair: Sen. Mark Miller Legislative Council Staff: Mary Matthias, Pam Shannon, and Larry … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Battelle Memorial Institute, the University of Washington, and the University of Oregon are co-sponsoring the international Nanotechnology Health and Safety Forum (NHSF) in Seattle, Washington on June 8 – 9, 2009. The NHSF is coinciding with the first world-wide meeting of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) TC 229 — Nanotechnologies being held in the United States, … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on As a follow-up to last week’s post concerning The New York Times view of nanophobia, I also submit the following article. Nanowerk is reporting on a new study released by Yale University concerning the public opinion as to the safety of nanotechnology after receiving various amounts of information. The study is reported fully in Nature … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Late last month, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholar’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) published a paper on the ability of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to deal with possible environmental, health, and safety risks potentially posed by the use of some nanoscale materials in certain consumer products. E. Marla Felcher, "The … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This Article Was Authored and Contributed by the American National Standards Intititute This second article in a series on nanotechnology standardization introduces the international working group that, under US leadership, is creating the standards needed to support the health, safety, and environmental aspects of nanotechnology. In the post-war era of the late 1940s, global leaders … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on This morning’s New York Times features an editorial discussing Peter Barton Hutt’s before the House subcommittee responsible for FDA oversight. Mr. Hutt warned that the FDA was "barely hanging on by its fingertips;" others testifying before the subcommittee suggested the agency lacked funds and staffing to do its job: In a hearing before a House … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Nanotechnology was among the many hot topics discussed at this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Among the five conceptual pillars for this year’s Forum was the topic: "Exploring Nature’s New Frontiers," which is described here. It’s a nice concept, I believe, because it highlights the diverse areas — everything from global climate change … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The November 22, 2007 issue of The Economist contains a story on nanotechnology safety entitled "A little risky business." The article focuses on Andrew Maynard’s presentation before the House Science Commitee in October, an event we covered here, and also covers the ongoing debate over the use of silver nanoparticles as an antimicrobial agent in consumer … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Researchers at Rice University successfully utilized a near-infrared flourescent imaging technique to detect individual carbon nanotubes in fruit flies. The study, reported here and here, involved an experiment where the researchers fed fruit fly larvae a diet that contained carbon nanotubes. The flies were then shot with a laser, which excited the nanotubes and allowed them to be viewed using a … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on One downside to our focus on the safety of nanomaterials is that it can cause us to lose focus on the potential upsides of nanotechnology in the environmental, health and safety arena. CORDIS is reporting on a study funded by the European Parliament’s Scientific Technology Options Assessment ("STOA") committee which looked into whether nanomaterials could … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on As reported by AzoNano.com, the EPA recently announced the award of two grants, collectively worth $600,000, to researchers at Oregon State University to study the human health impacts of nanomaterials. The pair of studies look like the first step toward nanotechnology regulation. According to the AzoNano article, the first study is a survey of common … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on According to a December 21, 2006 press release, both outgoing House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and incoming Chairman Bart Gordon (D-NT) urged the Bush administration "to establish a research agenda with clear priorities to ensure a greater understanding of the potential environmental, health, and safety risks associated with nanotechnology." I suspect that in 2007, … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on By, Jaime T. Landrum: As the impact of nanotechnology grows, more companies are considering the utilization of nanotech products and processes in the workplace. Questions regarding nanotechnology’s effect on the American worker, however, come side-by-side with these business decisions. As reported at Occupational Hazards, The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is expected … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on Rice University’s Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, together with researchers from University College London and the London Business School, released the results of a major consumer research study that sought to measure public perceptions of the risks & benefits of nanotechnology. As reported in PhysOrg, The largest and most comprehensive survey of public perceptions … Continue Reading
By Porter Wright on The Christian Science Monitor dedicated its editorial yesterday to the issue of nanotechnology safety, and endorsed the proposal set forth in November’s Nature by fourteen scholars to discuss what lead author, Professor Andrew Maynard, termed the five "grand challenges" of nanotechnology safety. Citing a Lux Research study, the CSM editorial indicated that by 2014, manufacturers will sell … Continue Reading
