03: The Risks and Opportunities of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnologies comprise a range of technologies that use materials on an incredibly small scale. One nanometre is one millionth of a millimetre. Materials on this small scale display properties different from “bigger” particles (eg: greater reactivity and mobility in the human body) and are increasingly being used to create new products or applications, such as antibacterial socks or transparent sunscreen creams.
Because of these different properties, nanotechnologies and nanomaterials are increasingly seen as drivers of economic growth. Most countries and trading blocks are developing and funding research and innovation programmes to ensure the commercial success of nanotechnologies. Nanoscience and the nanotechnologies are progressing very rapidly. However, like other new technologies, nanomaterials at the same time raise concerns about their potential risks, in particular for workers, consumers and the environment. The international community is debating the potential safety aspects of nanomaterials in fora such as the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials. Since 2005, the European Union has undertaken a proactive approach to nanotechnologies, by funding several research projects and initiating a number of regulatory developments.
This seminar has a dual focus: on the one hand, to explain what nanotechnologies and nanomaterials are and what are their risks and benefits; on the other hand to provide students with the tools that will enable them to understand how to address these risks and benefits and therefore to assess whether what all the actors involved, ranging from researchers to policy-makers and businesses, are doing is right in their opinion.