SLIDING RISK SCALE NECESSARY FOR NANOTECHNOLOGY, SCIENTIST SAYS

Until more information is known about the exact health risks presented by nanotechnology, the federal government needs to use a sliding scale to determine potential harm, a former federal official says.

The government must invest more time and money in nanotechnology research to study possible health risks from these products, Andrew Maynard, a former National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health official and chief science adviser for the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, writes in an upcoming journal article.

But until the government has more data about these risks, it should take the intermediate step of selecting appropriate controls based on an approach known as "control banding," Maynard says in an article to be published in January in the journal Annals of Occupational Hygiene.

Control banding estimates potential risks using a nanomaterial's impact and exposure indexes. The impact index focuses on the nanomaterial's composition, including particle size, shape and surface area. The exposure index includes the amount of the material used in a product.

The article, "Nanotechnology: The Next Big Thing or Much Ado About Nothing?," is available at dx.doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mel071 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mel071).