Exploring the Risks and Ethics of Nanotechnology

  Brent Blackwelder, President
  Friends of the Earth

The nanotechnology juggernaut is rapidly taking off with billions of dollars of private and governmental research money being provided worldwide annually. Today, there are more than 1,600 U.S. nanotech companies making more than 700 products. Remarkable things happen at the extremely small level, and the public is being courted with an array of great promises from manufacturers that new nano products will far surpass the utility of conventional products. These new nano products include novel cancer therapies, site-specific administration of medicine, pollution-eating compounds, improved solar cells, biohazard detectors, increased fuel-mileage diesels, data storage devices (so small that the works in the Library of Congress would be contained in a computer the size of a sugar cube), lightweight military armor, and fibers that repel oil.

In 2003, Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology Phillip J.Bond stated:
On a human level, nano's potential rises to near Biblical proportions. It is not inconceivable that these technologies could eventually achieve the truly miraculous: enabling the blind to see, the lame to walk, and deaf to hear; curing AIDS, cancer, diabetes and other afflictions; ending hunger; and even supplementing the power of our minds, enabling us to think great thoughts, create new knowledge, and gain new insights. ¹

The nanotechnology revolution is pushing forward even in the absence of proper testing,labeling,and regulation, and this poses profound challenges beyond those seen with biotechnology. Because nanotechnology crosses numerous industrial sectors, it can bring about the mixing of animate and inanimate nature in unforeseen ways.

What Happens at the Nano Level?
A nanometer (one billionth of a meter) is so tiny that a human hair has a width of 80,000 nanometers and a white blood cell has a width of 7,000 nanometers. At these microscopic levels, chemicals take on differ- ent electrical, optical, and magnetic properties, and these unique characteristics are a part of the excitement in nanoscience. For example, gold changes colors at various nano levels. Substances that were stable can become reactive, those that were insulators can become conductors, and those that were opaque can become transparent. Knowing the characteristics of substances in bulk does not provide comprehensive information about properties at the nano level; rather, properties of substances on the nanoscale must be found by direct experiment.

Concerns about Impacts of Nanoparticles
Almost nothing is known about the long-term risks that nanoparticles may pose to workers, consumers and wildlife, but initial studies suggest a range of serious concerns.

Abasic concern is that a number of substances take on toxic characteristics at the nano level that they did not possess in bulk form. The British Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering stated in its 2004 report:
The evidence we have reviewed suggests that some manufactured nanoparticles and nanotubes are likely to be more toxic per unit mass than particles of the same chemicals at larger size ... factories and research laboratories should treat manufactured nanoparticles and nanotubes as if they were hazardous. ²

Nanoparticles are so small that they can cross the blood-brain barrier, which raises concern that they can compromise the immune system. For instance, animal studies indicate that nano-sized chemicals trigger a variety of inflammatory and immune responses that current toxicity models do not predict. Experiments with nanoparticles in water have shown impairment in fish brains and a decimation of some bacteria (e.g., Escherichia Coli). In lab testing, mice that breathe nanoparticles suffer damaged health.

Furthermore, nanoparticles have great mobility because of their smallness. Swiss Re says that, in contrast with larger particles, nanoparticles have "almost unrestricted access to the human body."³ These particles can move throughout the body because they evade the usual protective mechanisms that remove the larger particles. If nanoparticles get in water, they can spread and pass through most filters. In the air, nanoparticles do not easily settle onto surfaces but can drift for long periods. We do not yet know whether these particles will bioaccumulate and persist in the environment. While a nanoparticle may enter a cell to deliver a cancer-fighting drug, it might also enter healthy cells and cause cancer or do other damage.

Lack of Regulation
Despite the fact that Swiss Re has stated its concerns quite bluntly, there is virtually no regulation of nanotechnology in the United States. In June of 2005, the EPAproposed to regulate nanomaterials through a voluntary pilot program (Docket ID: OPPT-2004-0122). Nineteen public interest organizations,including Friends of the Earth, the International Center for Technology Assessment,and the Natural Resources Defense Council submitted detailed comments for the record, arguing, in part, that the EPAis required, under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976, to implement more than a merely voluntary program.

Lessons from Asbestos, Lead and Mercury
A century's worth of experience in trying to regulate asbestos led Swiss Re to conclude that regulating nanotechnology may be a daunting task. Similarly, despite the long-known, adverse health impacts of lead and mercury, the United States is still grappling to control their deleterious effects; alarmingly, one in six mothers has enough mercury in her body to impair the development of a fetus. In order to prevent detrimental health and environmental impacts, Friends of the Earth supports a moratorium on the commercialization of nanoproducts until a full-fledged regulatory system is in place and a full-scale effort is made to understand the health and environmental impacts of nanotechnology.

Brent Blackwelder, Ph.D., president of Friends of the Earth U.S., which is part of the 70-member country organization Friends of the Earth International, the world's largest envi- ronmental advocacy organization. Blackwelder is a Fellow of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future.

¹ Phillip J.Bond,Under Secretary of Commerce for Technology,U.S.Dept of Commerce,Remarks as Prepared for Delivery (World Nano-Economic Congress,Washington,D.C.,Sept.9,2003).
² Royal Society.Royal Academy of Engineering.Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: Opportunities and Uncertainties. London: RS policy document 19/04 (2004).
³ Annabelle Hett,Nanotechnology: Small Matter, Many Unknowns, Swiss Re,7 (2004).