Jan 7 2010
The 5th Int. NanoRegulation Conference took place in Rapperswil, Switzerland, and tackled the issue of "No Data, no Market?" - Challenges to Nano-Information and Nano-Communication along the Value Chain. During the two-days Conference, a number of leading nanotechnology stakeholders presented their views and expectations regarding information and data exchange along the value chain, and discussed possible approaches to the problem in workshops.
The debate during the NanoRegulation Conference revealed an clear and urgent need for a coordinated information transfer of relevant nanospecific data along the value chain. It became obvious that especially consumer-near goods containing manufactured nanomaterials will have to be labelled in some form sooner or later due to growing pressure from the European Parliament as well as from consumer organizations. However, there are concerns that such nano-labelling could be misunderstood as an indication of hazard, thereby raising new and potentially unnecessary fears among the consumers.
The Conference report which has been released now outlines the positions from the participating stakeholders from industry, authorities and various NGOs and international organisations. On the second day, a series of parallel workshops covered the issues of "nano labelling in consumer products", "HSE relevant information flow to downstream users and authorities" and "adapting the MSDS to the requirements of the nanoscale". The vivid discussions which took place in the workshops are summarised in the Conference report.
In its introductory part, Dr. Christoph Meili from the Innovation Society Ltd. (St.Gallen) proposes a model of a "Nanotechnology Information Pyramid" as an approach to frame and further deepen the discussion about the "No Data, no Market" problem which is presented by the gaps in the transfer of safety data along the nanotechnology value chain. The "Nano Information Pyramid" proposal is included in the NanoRegulation Conference report and also available as a separate document.
If you are interested in the outcomes of the conference and the detailed positions of the participating stakeholders, you may want to download the conference report which is now available at no charge under the following link:
>> Download the NanoRegulation 2009 Conference Report (pdf, english, 3.82 MB)