EPA Issues Nanotech White Paper

EPA's Science Policy Council released a peer-reviewed white paper on nanotechnology on Feb. 15. The product of an intra-agency working group, the paper is intended to lay out the scientific issues related to nanotech that EPA management must address, to support the needs of associated EPA program offices, and to share these scientific matters with stakeholders and the public. Among the paper's recommendations are for the agency to continue performing research on risk assessment and environmental applications of nanomaterials and to encourage pollution prevention, manufacturing stewardship, and sustainability in nanotech research, processes, and products. It also recommends that EPA continue to expand its collaborations with other agencies and stakeholders dealing with nanomaterial applications and potential human health and environmental implications. The intra-agency group also calls for the establishment of a standing committee to promote information sharing on nanotech issues and additional training for scientists and managers in this area. "This white paper is clear on the challenges nanotechnology presents and gives EPA the information it needs to organize itself to handle them," says Andrew Maynard, science adviser to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Washington, D.C., policy think tank.