Development Ethical and Societal Issues Satyen Baindur PhD

Stewardship in Nanotechnology Development:
Ethical and Societal Issues
SATYEN BAINDUR, PHD
Ottawa Policy Research Associates, Inc.
OPRA Report 2006-4-1 Issued April 2006
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Building Risk Assessment R&D Capacity
Of course, one of the major expressed concerns regarding nanotechnology deals
with their health and environmental effects. Such concerns also originate from an ethical
and societal perspective, and not exclusively from a clinical, medical, or techno-scientific
perspective. This issue can be addressed by initiating multidisciplinary research programs
into the health and safety aspects of nanomaterials. Designing such a research program to
have significant and ongoing input from social scientists and ethicists, and creating a
horizontally integrated research agenda – addresses it more fully.
Such a research agenda would have a pharmacological, a toxicological and an
ecological component, properly addressing issues that traverse disciplinary boundaries,
and balanced by ethical and social perspectives. Risk assessment would include
continuing and ongoing research into both exposure aspects and hazard aspects.
As the pace of nanotechnology product development increases, and
commercialization becomes a reality for many product classes, the issue of risk
assessment is no longer merely of long-term interest, but can become critical and
urgent. In Germany, for example, the National Institute of Risk Assessment issued a
health warning in March 2006, against using a cleaning substance made from nanoscale
materials that caused respiratory illnesses among users, particularly those who used the
product in small, enclosed spaces. The product was subsequently recalled by the
manufacturer.
A related issue that arises in situations involving nanoscale materials in products
is whether the earlier classification of products into 1) those that require regulatory
approval prior to use, and 2) those that are subject to post-market surveillance – may
need to be revisited as regards nano-products. Since nanomaterials have raised concerns
about health and safety (discussed in detail elsewhere in this document), until greater
information becomes available regarding the safety of nano-scale products in everyday
use, one possible policy option is greater scrutiny for all nanoproducts before they reach
the market, even if the product class to which they belong was previously not subject to
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