Nanotech Safety: More on How Little We Know

More news on how little we know about the risks of nanotechnology: The following excerpt is from the Economist, which ran “A little risky business” it its November 22 issue. The full text is free online, and it raises many of the same points that Robin Marantz Henig made in her OnEarth cover story, “Our Silver-Coated Future,” which was published in September. Since then, the U.S. House of Representatives’s Committee on Science and Technology convened for the third time to discuss the risks of nanotechnology, and as the Economist notes, not a whole lot of progress has been made.

… the co-ordination and planning of risk research is also taking years longer than anyone would have imagined. This has frustrated Brian Baird, the chairman of one of Congress's science committees. On October 31st he told the government's National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), that it was not acceptable that its [environmental, health and safety (EHS)] strategy, and its implementation plan, had not materialised some 18 months after it was due. Simple prudence, he said, suggests urgency in making sure that the work catches up with, or even surpasses, the pace of commercialisation.
America already spends the most on EHS research into nanotechnology. Depending on who does the counting, it ranges from $11m to $60m. But of the larger, government-claimed figure, nobody is able to say precisely what this money is buying. …

Nevertheless, who can say no to this stuff? Not Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada, according to this story that ran in Canada's Calgary Herald on December 10:

…A blue-ribbon panel in the U.S. -- which Transport Canada, MADD Canada and automakers are members of -- is considering having the interlocking devices installed in all new cars so that, if a driver is over the legal blood-alcohol level, the car won't start.

The group is studying various nanotechnologies, but one of them uses sensors embedded in the steering wheel or gear shift that can measure blood-alcohol levels through the skin -- much as an exercise machine can measure a heart rate. …