Berkeley To Be The First City To Regulate Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology, the use of nanoscopic materials as microscopic
building blocks for thousands of consumer products, has turned
into a big business so quickly that few are monitoring its effects
on health and the environment.
So the government of Berkeley, California, is intending for the
city to be the first to step into the breach and try to regulate this
industry.

The Berkeley City Council was expected Tuesday to amend its
law on hazardous materials to compel researchers and manu-
facturers to report what nanotechnology materials they are
working with and how they are handling the tiny particles.

The aim of nanotechnology in the commercial world is to
develop new products and materials by changing or creating
materials at the atomic and molecular level.
But many of the effects of such actions remain unknown.

The new regulation, city officials said, is mostly aimed at
monitoring nanotechnology start-ups and small businesses,
rather than the national lab's efforts.


SOURCE:
International Herald Tribune

NOTE: For clarity reasons, I've changed the word
subatmoic to Nanoscopic, as that is the actual term.


As to the basis of the article, I think that it's a good idea,
while I am all for developing and using NanoTech, we do
need to regualte it, so that grey goo type scenarios, and
environmental damage type things can't happen.


Comments, Opinions?

[edit on 12/13/2006 by iori_komei]

I tend to agree.

Slow and easy and with much thought. There are many things that we as a human race do not know. For example; are we physical or are we spirit? Are we both? And, how?

Control your cells, I say.

[edit on 13-12-2006 by angryScientist]