The environmental and occupational risks posed by exposure to nano products must not be subject to only voluntary controls, a broad-based coalition has warned.
The national and international trade union and civil society groups last week issued a joint public statement condemning efforts by DuPont Chemical Company and the influential US Environmental Defense (ED, formerly Environmental Defense Fund) to promote a voluntary 'risk assessment' framework for nanotechnology.
The groups say that at a time when a growing number of labour and citizens' groups are calling attention to the potential risks of nanotechnology, and the urgent need for a an international regulatory framework based on the precautionary principle, DuPont and ED will be promoting their voluntary programme to public and regulatory agencies in the US and abroad. 'Voluntary regulations', the coalition letter notes, 'have often been used to delay or weaken rigorous regulation and should be seen as a tactic to delay needed regulation and forestall public involvement.'
Global farm and food trade union federation IUF says commercial products containing engineered nanoparticles - products based on manipulating natural and synthetic materials at the atomic and molecular level - are being rapidly introduced 'despite the fact that at present there is no known method for limiting, controlling or even measuring human exposure to nanomaterials and processes in or outside the workplace.'
Last month, a report by the UK government's leading scientific advisers warned the government it had failed to fund adequate research into potential health risks posed by nanotechnology (Risks 300) in its haste to support nano product development and use.
