Editors' Summary: Profs. Kenneth Abbott, Gary Marchant, and Douglas Sylvester argue that regulation of nanotechnology should be flexible and adaptive; innovative; international; and official. In order to meet these requirements, the authors call for negotiation of an international framework convention on nanotechnology as soon as possible. In response, Lynn Bergeson appreciates the inherent logic and appeal of their proposal, but questions whether the timing is right for the necessary parties to undertake the concerted effort needed to create such a convention.

An international framework convention protocol approach for nanotechnology is an intriguing notion and one that would appear to make good sense. This Comment on Profs. Kenneth Abbott, Gary Marchant, and Douglas Sylvester's proposal, as set forth in their excellent article entitled A Framework Convention for Nanotechnology?, is offered more to spark further thought than as a response to the question they pose.

In June 2004, representatives from 25 countries and the European Union (EU) met in Alexandria, Virginia, for an international dialogue on the responsible research and development of nanotechnology. The participants called for the creation of institutional mechanisms to foster an ongoing dialogue, the exploration on new governance tools and structures for nanotechnology oversight, the development of data-sharing mechanisms, and the need to expand the dialogue well beyond the scientific community to include industry and civil society actors.

Given the fact that nano particles are in more than 600 consumer products and that most recently, nano particles are being put in food, food packaging, and agricultural chemicals, Friends of the Earth believes it essential that a moratorium be immediately instituted in the United States and worldwide to stop this practice until some appropriate regulatory regime can be put in place. As the world's largest reinsurance company, Swiss Re, noted in its seminal report on nanotechnology, industrialized nations had learned little 100 years after the dangers of asbestos were known.

Nanomaterials and products containing nanomaterials are quickly being integrated into a wide range of commercial and noncommercial applications. As nanomaterials grow more commonplace, we are coming in contact with these substances on an increasingly regular basis, in products ranging from stain-resistant khaki pants to sunscreens. Despite the expanding use of nanomaterials, relatively little is known about the possible harm they could pose. Current forms of government regulation are proving inadequate in addressing this potential harm.

There is little doubt that nanotechnology is delivering on its promise to revolutionize many sectors of the global economy. As nanoenabled products populate the commercial landscape at an accelerated pace, there is growing interest in developing tools that can be used to assess more precisely the benefits to the environment of nanotechnology and/or nanoenabled products.

On November 3-5, 2009, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) met "to consider and review a set of scientific issues related to the assessment of hazard and exposure associated with nanosilver and other nanometal pesticide products." The decision to convene an SAP was nominally motivated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) need to consider four applications pending at the Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) seeking registration of products containing nanosilver-based active ingredients.

Like the apocryphal dog that didn't bark, sometimes the most telling reaction is the one that doesn't happen at all.

Nanotechnologies have opened the way to a wide range of innovative products in food, cosmetics, healthcare, computing, energy storage, and other areas. The result of the deliberate manipulation of matter at the molecular level (typically at a scale of approximately 100 nanometers or less, a nanometer being one-billionth of a meter), nanomaterials have been used in a growing number of products that are available to consumers worldwide. Understanding of how nanomaterials interact with the environment and the human body, however, has not kept pace with the development of nanotechnologies.

Editors' Summary