The challenge of regulating nanomaterials - Environmental Science & Technology Online, USA

As the nanotechnology industry thunders ahead, filling consumer products with nanomaterials, experts worry about the lack of adequate oversight and regulation.

Governance: Nanotech code – Big questions for tiny technology - Ethical Corporation, USA

Nanotechnology developers aim to head off a backlash by devising a voluntary code. After years as the hottest of emerging technologies, nanotechnology is now hitting the shelves. But fears have coalesced over what many see as a scientific leap into the unknown.

How About an X Prize for Green Nanotechnology? Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies Seeks Partners - Nanotechnology Now, USA
More and more chemists, engineers, researchers, and developers are engaging in the area of "green nanotechnology". Unfortunately, the "greening" of nanotechnology has received very little attention from policymakers, and it receives only a small fraction of the total nanotechnology research and development investment. "Green nano" should become the rallying cry for the socially responsible investment (SRI) community and a logical target for the growing number of investors in "clean tech." One way to capitalize on the promise of green nano and catalyze this advancement is through a prize that recognizes achievements and stimulates innovation in green nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology use in food applications: a scientific and regulatory challenge - NPI Center, USA
The growing use of nanotechnology in food applications poses new challenges for both science and regulation in Europe’s food and nutrition market.
The first nano-food contact material (a silicon dioxide coating) has already been approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) this year, and a second, titanium nitride, is under review. However, EFSA has said that it will not be able to meet the European Commission’s mandate for a complete generic risk assessment of nanotechnology by 31 March 2008, because of the vast range of existing nanomaterials with completely divergent physical/chemical properties and safety profiles.

Unknown health impact of nanotech worries some - Reuters, USA

Nanotechnology has been hailed as the science of the future, with micro-particles already powering innovations that remove lines from faces, strengthen beer bottles and clean clothing without water. Yet early studies also indicate some of these particles, enabled by the latest in engineering science, can cause cancer.