The term “ environmental health and safety” ( EHS) is often used to frame the issues concerning the implications of nanotechnology. This term is misleading in that it is most commonly associated with occupational health—assessing the environmental conditions workers are exposed to and ensuring their health and safety. “ Human health and environmental eff ects” may be a more appropriate term to indicate that exposure to nanomaterials can occur well beyond the occupational setting.
In the wake of what is frequently touted as the Third Industrial Revolution, nanotechnology continues to evolve and develop at breakneck speed. Many nano-based applications are already available commercially but little is known about the human health and environmental eff ects of exposure. This rapid surge in worldwide research and development and the potential large-scale use of nanomaterials in consumer products point toward the need for more defi nitive information regarding environmental health and safety impacts from the manufacturing process, disposal (industrial or personal), remediation, and treatment applications. As indicated in the previous four sections, the applications described show enormous promise for improving public health and the environment—specifi cally water quality—but cautious optimism may
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be warranted given the limited environmental and health risk information currently available [ 4 ]. However, there is information to be gleaned from the medical fi eld, through research on medical applications, about eff ects of these materials and particles on the human body.
The very characteristics that make nanomaterials so unique and special—size and reactivity, for example—are the same characteristics giving rise to concerns about exposure to these materials, such as those used for remediation or water treatment. These concerns are often related to fate and transport issues:
because of their exceedingly small size, the assumption is that they will be extremely mobile in porous media, thereby increasing the likelihood of human exposure due to dispersion and potential persistence in the environment [ 9 ].
Yet, how reactive such materials could be in the environment, what residual compounds are formed during degradation, and where and how these materials partition to various environmental and biological media are crucial but largely unknown. How these materials move from one medium to another, from one organism or ecosystem to another, and from organisms to the environment and vice versa will be critical for understanding and implementing proper manufacturing, usage, and recycling/disposal options that are most protective of human health and the environment [ 4 ] In order to eff ectively assess these impacts, a full life-cycle perspective (impact of a product from the accumulation of starting materials to the development, manufacture, use, and eventual disposal or reuse of the item or portions thereof) of the various constituents and end products is an important component of a research framework (see Sengul and Theis, Chapter 37). Although complete, robust life-cycle analyses are diffi cult, and potentially impossible, when data is limited, and this should not be an excuse for ignoring the full life cycle in any risk analysis.
Considering all these unanswered questions, a relatively small amount of funding, compared to overall nanotechnology research and development spending, is dedicated to understanding environmental health and safety issues. Under the auspices of the NNI, the U.S. government is assuming a leadership role in setting the directions for research for both the environmental applications and implications of nanotechnology [ 10 ]. Since 2001, approximately $12.2 million of federal grants have been awarded for the study of applications of nanotechnology to solve environmental problems, and $17.4 million has been awarded for the study of ecological and human health implications. Results of the research funded under these programs have helped to clarify important questions, principally in the use of nanomaterials for environmental cleanup/remediation and in better understanding the reactive nature of nanomaterials once they are introduced into biological systems. These questions relate to the environmental and health eff ects from exposure to materials that may be persistent and highly reactive; how those materials move through and interact in the various media—water, soil, and air—and how to utilize nanotechnology to better measure pollutants in the environment (see, e.g., grants awarded by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, http://es.epa.gov/ncer/nano/index.html).
There is, however, a growing recognition on the part of lawmakers that these
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important human health and environmental issues need to be addressed if nanotechnology is to continue to fl ourish.
In addition to the government, academics and industry have promoted the need for EHS research. For example, Maynard et al. proposed a framework comprised of fi ve “ Grand Challenges” for evaluating the human health and environmental health risks associated with nanotechnology. The hope is for the proff ered research strategy to be adopted by the global science community and for fostering the responsible development of nanotechnology [ 11 ]
The international community is equally active in the quest to better understand the EHS implications of nanomaterials. For example, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD, see http://
www.oecd.org/sti/nano) established the Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials ( WPMN) under the Joint Chemicals Committee to promote international cooperation and assist in the development of rigorous safety evaluation of nanomaterials. The WPMN is developing a research strategy based on the knowledge that large sums of money are being devoted to R&D for future applications of nanotechnology whereas, by comparison, relatively small sums are devoted to human health and environmental safety research.
The objectives are to strengthen the international cooperation on safety research related to manufactured nanomaterial through: (1) identifying priority research areas; (2) considering mechanisms for cooperative international research; and (3) drawing up recommendations on research priorities for the short, medium, and longer term. The WPMN has also developed a comprehensive list of research themes on environment and human health safety.
The Working Party on Nanotechnology ( WPN), somewhat distinct from the WPMN, was also established by OECD’s Committee for Science and Technology Policy to advise the OECD on emerging policy-relevant issues in science, technology, and innovation related to the responsible development of nanotechnology. The WPN also promotes international cooperation that facilitates research, development, and the responsible commercialization and utilization of nanotechnology. It has identifi ed the following six program areas as priorities for research:
statistics and measurement;
impacts on companies and the business environment;
international R&D collaboration;
communication and public engagement;
policy dialogue; and
global challenges: nanotechnology and water.
Thus, complementary eff orts exist in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Many countries are beginning to consider the economic development opport- unities associated with nanotechnology and are consulting more mature programs (e.g., NNI and OECD) to establish responsible nanotechnology research agendas.
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