Risk Analysis on the Special Needs of Nanotechnology

摘要

Nanotechnology means fast-growing future markets and many new business opportunities. Numerous big companies and a lot of start-up companies provide many new and exciting products for industrial and consumer applications. Nanomaterials and nanoproducts offer new possibilities in product development. Adopting nanotechnology can therefore significantly improve product properties. With shrinking feature sizes a significant change in the physical properties is gained. This effect is e.g. a result of nanoparticles having a dramatically increased surface area compared to their volume ratio. So their optical properties, like fluorescence, depend on the particle diameter. But not only optical properties are different from macroscale materials. When introduced into bulk materials, nanoparticles can also alter the mechanical properties of the compound material compared to the material without nanoparticles. Especially improvements in stiffness or elasticity are gained. For example aluminium-carbon nanotubes compounds are expected to be hundreds of time stiffer than conventional aluminium or by means of nano-reinforcement conventional polymers could even be used as lightweight replacements for metals. In general nano-modified materials provide more stability and improved functionality along with a significant reduction of material weight. Meantime there are many applications of nanotechnology. Currently nanotechnology is used e.g. for the manufacture of polymers based on molecular structure, or the design of computer chip layouts. But nanotechnology's most prominent commercial applications mainly use the advantages of nanoparticles in bulk form, such as sun lotion, cosmetics, protective coatings, and stain resistant clothing or to support direct drug delivery in medicine. However, these new properties could also pose potential risks, since mid- and long-term effects of nanosized materials on human health and the environment are not yet fully understood. In addition, there are many legal uncertainties, as it is still inexplicit to which extent nanomaterials can be treated under regulations similar to "traditional" chemicals as REACH for instance. Yet the situation is miles away from transparency: a vast number of certificates and standards push into nano-business but none of them so far could prevail. Common approaches are for instance the Nano Risk Framework [1] (Environmental Defense and DuPont), guidelines of the British Standards Institute and othe upcoming regulations [2] or several Codes of Conduct which are defined and self-agreed by single companies.