Taking Nanotechnology Into the "Real" World

The rapidly advancing field of nanotechnology offers exciting potential contributions to science, development of commercial and industrial products, and solutions to some of the most difficult challenges of the twenty-first century. To fully realize this potential, research scientists (whether academicians or industrial), entrepreneurs, and marketers must recognize the challenges associated with bringing a novel idea to the market place. This presentation focuses on one of these challenges ? aspects surrounding environmental health and safety. The presentation will include a discussion of the current and expected future national regulations (specifically associated with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency), recent and future regulatory efforts at the state level (focusing on the California data calls), efforts to identify practices that can minimize exposure to nanomaterials and the associated risk from industrial manufacturing and processing, and international initiatives in Europe. The intent is to familiarize the audience with the regulations that may need to be addressed when bringing a novel nanomaterial from the lab to production scale, to recognize potential hazards to workers and methods for minimizing the associated risks, and to recognize current research initiatives to evaluate potential environmental risks.