Safety of engineered nanomaterials and OH&S issues for commercial-scale production

The development of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) and nanotechnology applications has grown exponentially, along with the awareness of nanosafety issues in government, industry and public groups. A problem for the nanotechnology-related industries is that there is also a growing public concern from the negative perception in certain high profile groups of an uncontrolled proliferation and release of nano-enabled products that have not been adequately tested for their safety to humans and the environment. There are indications that this may be impacting on nanotechnology development, with the rapid increase in the worldwide 'nano' share of venture capital funding from 2001 to 2002, levelling off after 2002 along with the initial wave of nanotoxicology reports in the scientific literature [47].