Going Beyond Green - Research Progress on Environmental Health and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials - page 73

human health and the environment; for example, see Hutchison (2008) on “greener nanoscience” and
NIOSH (2012) for a more general description of “prevention through design”. In this chapter, the
committee projects to a time beyond the domain of its current research recommendations to consider how
questions about risk can be best approached in an adaptive and continuing manner so as to update
priorities for research and identify concerns constantly. The chapter is aspirational and goes beyond
setting out a prospective research portfolio to consider how future concerns can be anticipated and
addressed.
The general approach recommended by this committee is germane not only to ENMs but more
broadly to any emergent technology or class of materials that may be perceived to pose a risk. Prospective
and continuing assessment of potential hazard clearly is vital, and Figure 4-1 incorporates three key
elements of the approach that are the focus of this chapter and are discussed below:
 A governance structure, including designation of an institutional lead with sufficient
authority and accountability, clearly defined metrics for gauging research progress, coordinated
communications with and engagement of all stakeholders, leveraged public-private partnerships, and
principles that prevent conflicts between applications and implications of nanotechnology research.
 Stable, long-term support and incentives for sustaining the research community and
engaging interdisciplinary and international researchers.
 An adaptive decision-making process that integrates the latest nanotechnology EHS
information from all over the world into a “knowledge commons” and provides sufficient funding and
incentives, with input from multiple stakeholders, to illuminate the path toward ENM design, application,
and high-priority risk research.
EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE
Throughout its deliberations, the committee has repeatedly concluded that stronger governance of
nanotechnology EHS research is needed to manage, direct, and disseminate results of the numerous
research activities. Achieving effective governance is no small task. Considering the applications and
implications of nanotechnology requires enormous scale, input from diverse sectors, and a comprehensive
systems-driven approach to science. Unlike some other “big science” research approaches, such as the
Human Genome Project, the applications of nanotechnology permeate virtually every sector of our
society and economy. Such broad reach means that nanotechnology and related EHS issues span the
missions and jurisdictions of many government agencies and intersect with the activities and interests of
many stakeholders, including businesses, the academic community, consumers, workers, and myriad
organizations that make up civil society. Governance should actively engage all those in the process of
managing nanotechnology EHS research.
Nanotechnology's applications and its EHS implications are closely intertwined. That is, the
novel or enhanced physical and chemical characteristics of ENMs (such as greater reactivity or solubility
than that of the larger “bulk” material of the same chemical composition) that are being exploited in new
applications may also lead to biologic behaviors of potential concern for environmental or human health.
In addition, knowledge of the uncertainties in physical and chemical ENM characteristics is needed for
estimation of design risk in the cases of materials, products, and applications and for estimation of EHS
risks. Applications research is often relevant to our understanding of potential EHS risks and vice versa,
and this highlights the need for close collaboration of researchers in both fields and for an infrastructure
that supports more efficient and facile information flow between and integration of the applications-
research and implications-research communities.
However, close researcher interaction does not necessarily imply that applications research and
implications research should be jointly managed. Many agencies conduct or fund both applications
research and implications research in nanotechnology under the aegis of the National Nanotechnology
Initiative (NNI). That coordinating body has as its mission both the development of nanotechnology and