Many experts while sharing the view that more research into safety is necessary don’t want to see nanotech products taken out of commercial use. New developments could help the environment and makes the world resources go further. To go to the extreme of a moratorium which prevents a lot that development happening and could in effect just push it to countries were there less control, less regulation.

To address some of the concerns about risk and regulation an international group of scientists from both the United States and Europe is now calling for a mandatory frame work for dealing with nanomaterials used by commercial companies, but one problem with introducing regulation is that different countries and industries have very different approaches to how they deal with possible risks, and that’s even if the scientists have worked out exactly what the risks are.

It’s very much about the science that we’ve simply got to stop there; we’ve got to work out what is difference and what could possibly cause harm. We’ve got to work out the rules of how we use information, how we make wise sensible choices when it comes to regulating materials. If you are regulating things you won’t make sure you’ll protect people we don’t want to regulate because it just harms the industry so the people end up losing jobs, they don’t have the products they want.

The rise of nanotechnology holds a promise of a new cleaner industrial revolution for the world, but the dangers are clear. If the scientists and regulators don’t get a right the risk could overweight the benefits all of us as consumers of the world’s newest technologies.