Does EPA Have an Adequate Strategy to Oversee Nanotechnologies?

Does the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have an adequate strategy to ensure that nanotechnology is being safely commercialized? Can it get needed information through a proposed program where companies voluntarily submit details about the nature of the nanomaterials they are using to manufacture products and about their steps to ensure safety? What incentives, if any, exist for firms to take part in this new EPA program? And how appropriate is the agencys approach for classifying nanoscale substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)?

Former EPA Assistant Administrator for Policy and Senior Advisor to the Wilson Centers Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies J. Clarence (Terry) Davies will address these questions at the EPAs public meeting on its proposed voluntary Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP).

The meeting will take place on Thursday, August 2 at 9:00 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Rosslyn, Arlington, Virginia; see: http://www.epa.gov/oppt/nano/nmsppubmtg.htm

Nanotechnology was incorporated into more than $30 billion in manufactured goods in 2005. By 2014, an estimated $2.6 trillion in manufactured goods globally will use nanotechnology, or 15 percent of total global output.