Health Law
Nano Risks Loom Large
Posted Aug 13, 2007, 07:17 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
A Food and Drug Administration toxicity researcher yesterday defended the agency’s testing of products made with nanotechnology, the science of manipulating objects that are measured in nanometers.
“We haven’t been hiding under a rock,” said FDA toxicity researcher Paul Howard, speaking at a panel discussion at the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco. The agency considers products made with nanomaterials on a case-by-case basis.
But critics on the panel said the FDA hasn’t done enough, the ABA Journal reports. A nanometer is just a billionth of a meter, yet materials made with the technology can have a big risk because they are untested, they said.
Nanomaterials have “unique and unpredictable” risks, said George Kimbrell, a lawyer with the International Center for Technology Assessment in Washington, D.C. The group has filed a legal petition with the FDA asking it to address health and environmental risks of consumer products made with the technology.
Commercial applications of nanotechnology have produced new sunscreen, cosmetics, protective coatings and stain resistant clothing.
Howard said the FDA started an in-house nanotechnology interest group in 2002. Its Nanotechnology Task Force released a report July 25 recommending the agency develop nanotechnology guidance for manufacturers and researchers.
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