Nanotechnology — private profit vs public protection
On June 17-18, the first inter-governmental dialogue on "Responsible Research and Development of Nanotechnology" was convened in Washington with representatives from 26 countries. In his introductory remarks, Mike Roco of the US Government's National Science Foundation explained that the meeting was dedicated to the examination of broad societal issues that cannot be addressed by any single country. Roco asked: "How can we prepare our world for the emergence of nanotechnology?" Nanotechnology refers to a spectrum of new technologies involving the manipulation of matter at the scale of atoms and molecules — the nanoscale. A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre. "Ironically, governments are talking about the need to be pro- active, failing to admit that they're at least one decade late: nanotech products are already commercially available and laboratory workers and consumers are already being exposed to nanoparticles that could pose serious risks to people and the environment", said Pat Mooney, Executive Director of ETC Group in Ottawa. Already on the market An unofficial document generated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lists well over 100 commercial products based on nanotechnologies (available at www.etcgroup.org/documents/nanoproducts_EPA.pdf). These are already on the market or soon will be. They include a vast range of uses such as: stain-resistant fabrics for clothing and bedding, cosmetics and sunscreens, tennis balls and racquets, bowling balls, odour-eating socks, time-release perfumed fabrics, paints, capsules carrying haemoglobin (under development), sensors to test water impurities, sprayable vitamins, nanoparticle water purifiers, ski wax, 4-wheel drive turrets, long-lasting paper, nanotubes for flat panel display screens, artificial silicon retinas, drug delivery systems, flash memory devices, diagnostic agents for use in MRI scans. The US Government estimates that one million new workers will be employed in nanotech-related industries within the next decade and the global nanotech market is expected to tip $1 trillion in just seven years. As a science nanotechnology is in its infancy, but the claims about its potential are almost the stuff of science fiction. One of the most promising and also worrying aspects of this technology lies in the changes that take place to the properties of a substance when reduced to nanoparticles. A reduction in size — with no change in substance — can make a substance stronger or more reactive or lighter or more water-soluble or more heat- resistant or a better conductor of electricity. The engineering of nanoparticles can also bring about significant changes in the properties of a substance. Property changes begin to happen with materials 100 nanometres or smaller. It is these "quantum effects" that make nanoscale materials interesting to scientists and potentially profitable to industry, who are taking advantage of unique property changes in order to create new products and new markets. Manipulation of matter at the nanoscale and its control (through wealth and patents) could increase the power and domination of the largest transnational corporations over industrial manufacturing, food, agriculture and health in the 21st century. However, propelled by venture capital and taxpayer dollars, the field of nanobiotech is advancing rapidly without public debate or regulatory oversight. For most government policymakers, the implications of nanobiotech are not even on the radar. In recent months, governments in the USA and Europe have reluctantly conceded that current safety and health regulations may not be adequate to address the special exigencies of nanoscale materials. Though it is often the case that the substances themselves have been well studied and some controls put in place at larger scales, they have not been similarly vetted at the nanoscale. It should be no surprise that toxicity is one property that can change with a reduction in size: a chemical compound at the micro-scale — titanium dioxide (TiO2), for example — may be benign, but a nanoparticle of that same TiO2 could be toxic. From the few toxicological data that exist, it seems that a particle's size, shape, surface chemistry and composition can all contribute to a changed level of toxicity at the nanoscale. There are no labelling requirements for nanoparticles nor is special toxicity assessment required. Green Goo Green goo refers to potential dangers associated with nanobiotechnology. Nanobiotechnology involves the merging of the living and non-living realms — biological materials with synthetic materials — at the nanoscale to make hybrid materials and organisms, to build new molecular structures or products. This raises many potential concerns: will new life forms, especially those that are designed to function autonomously in the environment, open a Pandora's box of unforeseen and uncontrollable consequences? Researchers are coaxing living organisms to perform mechanical functions precisely because living organisms are capable of self- assembly and self-replication. With nanobiotech, researchers have the power to create completely new organisms that have never existed on Earth. Angela Belcher, Professor of Material Science at MIT, reported earlier this year that her research team has genetically engineered the DNA of viruses and induced them to produce inorganic materials in the form of tiny wires with magnetic and semiconducting properties. "Don't build a factory. Get a virus to do the work for you", says Ms Belcher. "We programmed the virus to grow a particular material at a particular length. Then we burned off the virus and were left with single-crystal semiconductor wires." Belcher refers to her viruses as "a genetic tool kit for growing and organizing nanowires." Belcher has so far induced viruses to grow roughly 30 different inorganic materials, and she plans to work her way through the entire periodic table. It is important to acknowledge that nanobiotechnology does not always involve self-replication, and biological materials can be harnessed for more mundane applications. Occupational Health & Safety "Currently, the toxicological studies of engineered nanomaterials can be counted on one hand, and more ambitious risk assessments are at least several years away", was the warning given to the European Commission by Vicki Colvin, Associate Professor and Executive Director of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology. A further warning was issued by the world's second largest re- insurer, Swiss Re in a report, Nanotechnology: Small Matter, many unknowns. The report strongly recommended that the precautionary principle "be applied whatever the difficulties" and that "no reasonable expense should be spared in clarifying the current uncertainties associated with nanotechnological risks". The US National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) announced it was preparing a "best practices" document for working with nanomaterials. "Very little is known currently about how dangerous nanomaterials are, or how we should protect workers in related industries. "Research over the past few years finds that nano-diameter particles are more toxic than larger particles on a mass basis. The combination of particle size, unique structures, and unique physical and chemical properties, suggests that a great deal of care needs to be taken to ensure adequate worker protection when manufacturing and using nanomaterials." The agency estimates that one million new US workers will be employed in nanotech-related industries within the next decade. "Materials and devices [that] are under development are so far from our current understanding that we can not easily apply existing paradigms to protecting workers", says the NIOSH. Carbon nanotubes are straw-shaped molecules of pure carbon discovered by Sumio Iijima of Japan in 1991. They have been dubbed the "miracle molecule" because they are 100 times stronger than steel and six times lighter. Nanotubes can be as small as 1 nanometre (nm) in diameter and as long as 100,000 nm. They can be single-walled, like straws, or they can be multi- walled, resembling posters in a mailing tube. Depending on how they are configured, they can act as semiconductors or as conductors. There are an estimated 16 major producers of carbon nanotubes worldwide. The global market for carbon nanotubes was estimated at $12 million in 2002, but was expected to have grown to $430 million by 2004. Two Japanese companies have plans to produce 40 tonnes of nanotubes this year with Carbon Nanotech Research Institute aiming for an annual production of 120 tonnes. In the USA, Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. has plans for a new plant that will produce between 150 and 300 tonnes per year. Electronics giant NEC plans to start selling nanotube fuel cells for laptops and mobile phones within a year and nanotube flat screen displays shortly thereafter. Because nanotubes have a high aspect ratio (i.e., they are needle-like in shape), there was some speculation initially that they could behave like asbestos fibers if they became airborne and were inhaled. Until this year, there existed only one published study addressing the issue of carbon nanotube toxicity: researchers at the University of Warsaw concluded, after a four- week trial in which nanotubes had been injected into the tracheas of guinea pigs, that working with nanotubes was "unlikely to be associated with any health risk". A second nanotube toxicity study at the Johnson Space Center, NASA, got underway last year. Hardly had the NASA researchers begun when the Financial Times pre-emptively (and mistakenly) assured its readers that the soon-to-be-released NASA study would give nanotubes its second clean bill of health. Rather than declaring carbon nanotubes safe, the researchers warned that the carbon tubes they tested (three different kinds) were more toxic than quartz dust — the material that causes silicosis among miners and railroad workers. One of the researchers recently told New Scientist, "The message is clear. People should take precautions. Nanotubes can be highly toxic."* * * Next Week: part 2 looks at the uses of nanotech in food, agriculture, the patenting of life and some of the issues arising from these developments. This article is compiled from material from ETC — the Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (formerly RAFI) — which is an international non-government organisation headquartered in Canada. ETC is dedicated to the advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights. http://www.etcgroup.org.