(NHI Nanoblog) Seeking to accelerate the pace of discovery of the risks and benefits of an evolving class of super-small materials, the National Nanotechnology Initiative is launching a special project focused on sustainable design.
The “Nanotechnology Knowledge Infrastructure” will bring together efforts by many of the 26 agencies and departments under the NNI’s umbrella that strive to understand nanoparticles, nanomaterials and the applications that use them. Among the members of this new group are agencies that are already heavily involved in work to suss out the potential risks of nanomaterials, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an arm of the Commerce Department.
The knowledge project is the fourth “signature initiative” announced by the NNI, which is supposed to pull together nanotechnology policy across the federal government. Others involve advanced manufacturing, solar technology and nanoelectronics.
Putting the effort to bridge the safety gap in such a prominent place suggests the federal government is taking the issue more seriously than at any other time in the NNI’s 12-year history.
Nanotechnology is a broad term that encompasses a wide variety of uses of very small materials (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter). These substances can make better batteries or lighter and stronger bike frames, as well as new medical instruments and medicines that can save lives. They’re increasingly common in consumer products, from “mineral-based” sunscreens to stain-repellent pants to boat paints that resist algae growth.
Nanomaterials are believed to hold great promise for a wide variety of applications. Their ultra-tiny size also gives them different properties; scientists are struggling to figure out whether that can make them dangerous in the process, and how and why it happens.
Now, the NNI is moving to become a central force in that effort. In documents released this week, the new program is described as a way to bolster existing programs within the government, such as the EPA’s ToxCast initiative, which is supposed to help regulators make quicker decisions about the safety of chemicals by both testing formulas and developing mathematical models that help predict which concoctions might be safer, or more dangerous.
Models, and a proposed “cyber-toolbox” to help with assessments, appear to be crucial components of the plan. So is information sharing — not just within the government, but among academic researchers too, to help make sure everyone has the latest information.
At a baseline level, the nod toward “sustainable development” is an echo of an increasingly loud clamoring for changes in the way many chemicals, not just nanomaterials, are developed. But the NNI is also responding, to some degree, to outside forces: In January, a National Academy of Sciences report urged the government to spend more on environmental, health and safety, or EHS issues. Late last month, a group of presidential science advisers echoed those suggestions.
The NNI released a strategic plan aimed at safety issues last fall, and this new initiative fits squarely into that blueprint.
If this project gets the same backing as the others that are more commercially-oriented, it could mean a big step toward catching safety up to innovation.
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