Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
extremely dangerous animals but pose no risk to a visitor of a zoo since the
exposure is low. Finally, mankind has difficulty in objectively assessing low-
chance events and systematically underestimates high-risk situations. That is
why people buy tickets to lotteries and have no difficulty in getting into a car
to get from A to B.
Projected on applications of nanotechnologies in food (and agriculture)
and water, the distorted assessment results in a strong focus on possible
adverse health effects of nanotechnologies. Since these negative effects are
virtually exclusively associated with nanoparticles, the focus is strongly on
these products of nanotechnologies, suppressing the benefits of other appli-
cations from the equation. To make a good risk assessment and from that an
objective risk/benefit evaluation requires communication and education of
the general public. For the time being, it probably requires that consumers
be informed about the use of nanotechnologies in individual products. This
will enable informed consumers to decide whether they want to accept the
(perceived) risks of nanoproducts in favor of the associated benefits.
Apart from extensive communication by both academia and the industry
on the products, the technologies used, and the benefits and risks involved,
consumer acceptance also requires regulation of products that employ haz-
ardous nanoparticles. Good governance, including enforcement of well-
devised regulation by high-level, objective bodies will build trust with
consumers since they can rely on this governance to make the risk assess-
ments that, because of the complexity of the technologies and their applica-
tions, is difficult for most of them (Grobe 2008). Because of the intimate and
emotional relationship that most people have with the food they eat, this
especially holds true for these kinds of products. Only if a trust base can be
created with large parts of the society can we expect to get a license to pro-
duce nanotechnology-enabled food products.
5.6.2 Nanotechnology and the Environment
As described in Section 5.5.2, the environment can benefit from applications
of nanotechnology of new concepts of polluted soil remediation. However,
it can also be damaged by nanoparticles. In this case, nanotechnology is
really a two-edged sword (Colvin 2003). The risks of nanoparticles for the
environment are also concerns of the general public in different applications
of nanotechnologies and affect the acceptance of some of the applications.
Although, also in this case, the confusion between nanotechnologies in the
broad sense and nanoparticles plays a role, the lack of knowledge of the long-
term effects of persistent nanoparticles does give some justification of the
concerns. Science has only a limited understanding of the effects of certain
types of nanoparticles on the environment (Wijnhoven et al. 2009). This type
of research is currently starting to be initiated. Until demonstrated that it is
safe, it seems prudent to apply the precautionary principle and refrain from
large-scale applications of persistent nanoparticles.
