Summer Work

Outside of consultant, my technical job title for ICON this summer is that of a web miner. If there was a form of digital black lung, I feel like I'd have it by now [insert cough originating from my eyeballs]. I am also in charge of debunking a lot of the wild claims made by non-governmental organizations lambasting the regulatory landscape of the nanotechnology industry, or lack thereof. Unfortunately, those white papers might as well be authored by Puff Daddy; they are all remixes of a previous version.

The latest paper is a petition by the International Council on Technology Assessment to the FDA calling for a revamped approach to regulating nanoparticles, including a moratorium on sunscreen products. Most of the petitioners are the same old faces in the nanotech world, most notably Greenpeace and the ETC Group. Moratoriums are hardly new news from these people, as seen here.

Some groups need to realize that the industrial ball is already rolling and the bureaucratic inertia is too much to stop it. Government is not going to allow a moratorium on an industry they've invested billions in, including a planned 1.2 billion in 2007. Anyway, the FDA has 6 months before they have to respond to the petition. If I were a gambling man, my money would be on a rejection, with outright laughing paying 3 to 1.