Recent advances in the design and potential applications of nanomaterials have led to a wide range of potential uses in consumer products (materials and devices, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, automobiles) due to unique properties (e.g., strength, low weight) related to their small size (1 to 100 nm). The understanding of the environmental effects and health risks associated with nanotechnology is very limited and contradictory. However nanomaterials and their associated technology may hold promising opportunities for medical applications, environmental remediation technologies, waste treatment, and energy conservation.
With over 500 consumer products in use today, what information do we have that suggests that nanomaterials may pose unacceptable risks to human and environmental health? How can any environmental health and safety impacts of nanomaterials be minimized through the manufacturing and product life-cycle, through engineering and handling practices to minimize exposure and risks of future liability? How nanotechnology can be used to enable environmental and health benefits? The NATO workshop will focus on recent advances in nanotechnology that may have environmental and health implications (e.g., benefits, risks and costs). The workshop has five primary purposes:
1. Identify and describe what is known about the risks and approaches to assess the safety and environmental risks of nanomaterials.
2. Outline environmental applications in the context of emerging consumer products, pollution prevention, risk reduction, and remediation.
3. Assess the suitability of multicriteria decision analysis for reconciliation of benefits and risks of nanotechnology.
4. Direct future research in nanomaterial and environmental sciences to address the emerging issues associated with nanotechnology in general and specifically with emerging nano-enabled consumer products.
5. Identify strategies for users in developing countries to best manage this emerging technology and its associated risks.