The Need for New Policy and Business Paradigms

Without doubt, the emerging field of nanotechnology ' involving the design and engineering of material, structures, and devices at the atomic and molecular level ' is one holding great commercial and social significance for a broad cross-section of the global economy. See D. Wallace and N. Booke, Industrial Revolution Redux, product liability law & strategy at 1 (Jan. 2008). At the same time, nanotechnology raises a number of questions yet to be answered concerning the possible variety of human health and environmental risks that might follow in the wake of commercial exploitation. Significantly, these concerns are increasingly being voiced by a broad cross-section of stakeholders, including a lobbying coalition consisting of industry
players and environmentalists. See, e.g., Agency Seeks Data about
Health, Environmental Risks of Nanotechnology, worker's comp. rep. (LRP Pub. Apr. 11, 2008).

At the heart of the matter are worries that through the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a product of the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, the federal government is promoting the development of nanotechnology at the expense of ' without sufficient focus upon ' the health and environmental aspects of this technology. Id. (noting that 'less than $10 million' of the federal government's 'more than $1 billion' annual expenditure on development of nanotechnology 'is being spent on research relevant to understanding and managing the risks of occupational exposure to nanomaterials'); see also President's Science Advisory Council Blasts Nano EHS R&D Funding, inside osha (Jan. 21, 2008).