On Lux Report - Taking Action on Nanotech May 2006 - RECOMMENDED

The Lux Report was good and had a lot of useful information and is recommended. I was one of the folks interviewed but I don't recommend a lot of things so...

Since it is copyrighted and proprietary to Lux, the following is simply an overview much like the Executive Summary that is used in their advertisement. If you want more, you need to buy the report.

The May 2006 report's full title is "Taking Action on Nanotech Environmental, Health, and Safety Risks." And was one of three actions on the nanotech risk landscape. The other two are the IRGC Report and the New Wilson Center report both of which will be blogged soon.

Some of its highlights -
1. We need exposure research esp. since it seems to be incredibly difficult to predict and measure given current monitoring technologies.
2. We need some testing to determine the effectiveness of current engineering controls involving ventiliation and personal protective equipment.
3. We need to understand risk and consequent liability leads to retrenchment rather than increasing private investment into toxicity research.

Areas of disagreement by me -
1. Lux feels technological paradises will only provide breathing room and companies will find their EHS problems following them - I found this overly optimistic. There are a plethora of reasons this may not be true. Such as - 1. the developing world has tended to avoid regulation and has not a track record of greening per se; 2. international agreements have not been able to guarantee fair labor and it is doubtless they can insure EHS; 3. there are many different ways for a corporation to insultate itself from liability when using a supplier.....
2. Regulation .... Here's the issue from my point of view. Large companies need regulation to increase predictability. Actually, the more stringent the regulations the more likely that large established transnationals can stranglehold startups and consume them. Regulation has traditionally been a concentration and monopoly device.