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Nano Tech. Spurs Continued Health Concerns
* * Beatles-Beatles writes to tell us Yahoo is reporting that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is working hard to develop guidelines for working with nanomaterials. There have been no proven health risks due to nanomaterials but Pat Roy Mooney, executive director of the ETC Group (an Ottawa-based non-profit that studies the impact of technology on people and the environment) was quoted saying that "No one knows, and that's the problem." Some feel that continued research and testing is needed to understand the nano-age before continuing to jump with both feet.
I'll give you $5 to stop posting Beatles-Beatles linkwhore stories.
As I see it, the very worst case scenario: it's the second coming of asbestos.
<shudder/>
Really, anybody who decides that more research into the health effects isn't worth it does not get a gold star in risk management.
Nano-materials are generally not a problem. Even in the worst case scenario where it turns out that nanotubes are as bad or worse the asbestos, it wouldn't mean much.
Open up your computer, peek in, and realize that almost everything you see in there was made using a horribly toxic process, could probably kill you if you tried to eat it, and would probably do bad things if you ground it up and tried to breathe it in. The nice thing is that all that stuff is in a nice solid state that isn't going to cause you any problems unless you do something stupid like grind it up and snort it.
Nano-materials are the same. Could breathing in carbon nanotubes give you lung cancer like asbestos? Sure. That said, it isn't worth the lost sleep until someone decides to line the walls of your house with carbon nanotubes. I wouldn't want my walls lined with arsenic either, but I don't care that my computer has some in it.
Further, you need to realize that the number of people doing 'true' nanotechnology where they are building novel and new molecules that we truly don't understand are very few, and of these few, even fewer are even thinking about products. Most of the 'nano' technology we hear about is just dumb mundane shit that provides no danger. People throw a little TiO2 into a material and call it "nano-technology" for the investors.
Right now, the only people that this stuff should concern should be researchers handling this stuff. Speaking as someone who DOES work with carbon nanotubes, you need to realize that we already treat this stuff seriously. We work with nanotubes in an aqueous solution such that it isn't going to float into anyone's lungs. On the very rare occasion when we work with this stuff when it is dry (looks like a black powder), this stuff is treated like powdered cancer and all precautions are taken.
The moral of the story? If you are a researcher and you are working with fullerenes, treat them with respect so you don't die in 20 years from lung cancer. If you are an average Joe, don't worry, you don't need to petition politicians to save you from the evil nano-technology yet. If someone wants to offer you buckyball memory or nanotubes transistors in your computer, relax, smile, and enjoy your spiffy new toy. When someone offers you nano-tube walls and buckyball insulation, THEN you can start to take these concerns seriously.