EPA and Nanotechnology: Oversight for the 21st Century

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May 23 2007, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Event Summary

Related:

• Download the report: EPA and Nanotechnology: Oversight for the 21st Century

• Read a Statement on the report by former EPA administrator William D. Ruckelshaus

Speaker Presentations:

• J. Clarence (Terry) Davies (download to view alongside the webcast)

As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently stated, nanotechnology has evolved from a futuristic idea to watch to a current issue to address. And for this new technology’s enormous potential to improve everyone’s life to be realized, nanotechnology must be subject to an adequate oversight system—a system designed to identify and minimize any adverse effects of nano materials and products on health or the environment.

A new report by J. Clarence (Terry) Davies, EPA and Nanotechnology: Oversight for the 21st Century, examines the EPA role in nanotechnology oversight. The report considers various oversight tools for dealing with nanotechnology and proposes a number of action steps for government, industry, and other stakeholders.

According to Davies, the nanotechnology revolution provides an opportunity to institute new kinds of regulation, to create an oversight system for nanotechnology that will be more effective but less intrusive than existing forms of regulation and that will require fewer resources from both the public and private sectors. Nanotechnology can also be a catalyst for the revitalization of EPA.

Please join us for the release of this forward-thinking report with author Davies, Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future, and Senior Advisor to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies. Dr. Davies also wrote the report, Managing the Effects of Nanotechnology, released in January 2006 by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.

Speakers:

• J. Clarence Davies, Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future, and Senior Advisor, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies

• David Rejeski, Director, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

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Nanotechnology is the ability to measure, see, manipulate and manufacture things usually between 1 and 100 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers wide. The limit of the human eye’s capacity to see without a microscope is about 10,000 nm.

The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is an initiative launched by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts in 2005. It is dedicated to helping business, government and the public anticipate and manage possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology.

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