Background:

Nanotechnology is an enabling cross-disciplinary technology, which is in the near term said to significantly improve existing processes and products, and in the longer term to provide revolutionary and life-changing advances for a wide variety of industries. Nanotechnology is researched for cancer treatment as well as for cost-effective renewable energy and investors are expecting a rapid growth of nanobased products in the market within the near future.

Nanoparticulate materials are very interesting for two reasons:

1. They have a high relative surface area, which improves the ability to bind, carry and absorb other compounds, and
2. additionally in the size range of tens of nanometres or less, quantum effects can begin to play a role which can significantly change a material’s optical, magnetic or electrical properties.

   
However, the very properties that are making nanoparticulate materials to have so diverse and promising application potentials, causes at the same time concerns regarding the potential impacts impacts on human health and environment. For example from combustion research it is known that nanoparticles can penetrate the normal entrance barriers and cause inflammations in the lungs and be transported around the human body. The most established hypothesis is that the inflammation worsens proportionally with the increase in surface area of the particles.

The innovative power of science is gaining a speed which makes it difficult to predict the consequences of its applications, and the increasing scale of human intervention in nature makes impacts more likely to become serious and global. The history has several risk management examples which have been unsuccessful. In the next years we will e.g. see an increase in skin cancer due to increase of UV-radiation and cancer caused by inhalation of asbestos dust. It is discussed that in both these cases there were early warnings that could have led to earlier actions to reduce hazards if the precautionary principle had been applied. There is therefore an international debate on risk management procedure, the usage of early warning systems and the use and application of the precautionary principle.

Uncertainty is a common nominator when the impacts of new technologies are discussed. There are many uncertainties and knowledge gaps regarding the effects nanomaterials could have on human health or environment. This has made it very difficult for the scientific community to demonstrate whether nanoparticulate materials are harmful or not and give clear advices on how to manage the risks from a life-cycle perspective. There is therefore an ongoing debate on regulatory and risk management issues of nanomaterials.

   
Objective:

The main objective of this phd-project is therefore, through focusing on nanotechnology, to explore which risk management approaches for new technologies that most effectively can safeguard human health and environment without compromising the wanted benefits of the technology. The research questions for fulfilling this objective are the following:

• What is the current knowledge base of the nanoparticulate materials risks to human health and environment?
• How are the nanoparticulate risks perceived by industry and regulatory bodies?
• What kind of risk management and risk assessment procedures is conducted by industry and regulators in the field of nanomaterials?
• What kind of risk management can most effectively prevent or minimize risks of nanomaterials to human health and environment?

   
Duration: 2/05 to 2/08    

   
Contact: Hans Kastenholz

    
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