Nanotechnology: Thinking Big About Things Small
New Report Looks Beyond Specific Statutes at Effective Oversight System

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March 14 2007, 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Event Summary

• Download the report: Thinking Big About Things Small: Creating an Effective Oversight System for Nanotechnology


• Download Mark Greenwood's Presentation

Nanotechnology—the so-called “science of the small”—is raising some big questions about the adequacy of the current federal oversight system. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is grappling with understanding how major laws, like the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), apply to nanotechnology. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is evaluating the effectiveness of the agency’s regulatory approaches and authorities to meet the potential unique challenges presented by the use of nanomaterials, and the agency expects to issue its findings in July 2007.

A new report by former EPA official Mark Greenwood, Thinking Big About Things Small: Creating an Effective Oversight System for Nanotechnology, urges policymakers to focus more attention on how core assumptions about risk assessment and risk management that underlie existing health and environmental regulations will translate from the macro world to the nano world. It also emphasizes that how the government ultimately oversees nanotechnology will have major impacts on business strategies, intellectual property, and the evolving structure of the industry. It argues that these issues should be discussed now, in the early stages of commercialization, rather than later.

A panel of speakers will examine the report’s conclusions at a program organized by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.

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Speakers:

• Mark A. Greenwood, PARTNER, Ropes & Gray Mr. Greenwood, who is currently a partner in the law firm Ropes & Gray, worked for EPA for over 16 years. He held a variety of senior positions in the Office of General Counsel, managing legal issues in areas as diverse as pesticides, toxic chemicals, hazardous waste management, Superfund, and environmental reporting. From 1990-1994, he was director of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics.

• Richard A. Denison, SENIOR SCIENTIST, Health Program, Environmental Defense Dr. Denison is a senior scientist in the Health Program at Environmental Defense.

• Stephen Harper, DIRECTOR, Environment, Health and Safety & Energy Policy, Intel Corporation Mr. Harper is the director of Environment, Health, Safety, and Energy Policy for the Intel Corporation.

• David Rejeski (Moderator), DIRECTOR, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies

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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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Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies
Woodrow Wilson Center
One Woodrow Wilson Plaza
1300 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20004-3027
Email: nano@wilsoncenter.org
Tel: 202/691-4282