Waiter, there's a nano in my soup

[Sadsack]

Nanotechnology generally refers to the use of particles of that are around 100 nanometers in size, which means that 1,000 stacked together would be about as a thick as a piece of paper. The teeny nanotubes have a stunning range of uses, and with the National Nanotechnology Initiative, the Obama administration has a huge commitment to developing uses of the technology for everything from medical devices to combating infectious diseases to renewable energy to database storage to pollution mitigation. The 2010 budget provides $1.6 billion to reach these goals, and this is a direct result of the President's interest; previous efforts to fund the initiative failed. Right now, nanotechnology is an emerging issue in food policy and regulation, because there's a huge interest among food producers, food safety specialists, as well as packers and shippers for using the latest science to do all kinds of things from monitoring the freshness of shipped food products to detecting bacterial levels of contamination to enhancing food flavors and colorings. (Above: A President Obama image made with nanotechnology, blown up about a billion times)

Problem is, using nanotechnology has all kinds of ancillary side effects and outcomes, some of them very dangerous to human health, as well as to the environment. Last year, a group of scientists, led by the National Resources Defense Council, charged FDA and the EPA with failing to accurately assess the dangers of nanotech, even though the technology is already used in more than 800 products. Of course, federal regulation to mitigate human health risks is tricky, since it's an emerging technology. Regulation for nanotech use in food falls under the rubric of the FDA, but...the FDA just announced that it doesn't even have a hard definition for what a nanoscale particle is. (Pictured: A nanoparticle)

Dr. Annette McCarthy, of FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, admitted this when speaking at the International Food Nanoscience Conference, on Saturday, in Anaheim, California.

“We do not have a definition about what nano size is. We tend to talk more in terms of impact,” McCarthy said.

When asked by food industry magazine FoodNavigator-USA.com whether consumers should be concerned that the FDA lacks a nanotechnology definition, McCarthy said: “I don’t think so. There are times when 101 nanometers is just as active as 100, so if you put a cut-off on it, it could actually end up being more misleading.”

FDA is trying to develop a guidance document for nanotechnology, with the goal of having it available before the end of 2010. It seems like FDA is taking a conservative stance right now, but with the rapidly advancing tech, that could change.

“For a lot of the nanotechnologies that are being designed at the moment, you would have a hard time today to come to FDA and prove that it’s generally recognized as safe. But two years down the line, it could be a slam dunk; it could be very simple,” McCarthy said.

FDA has been pressured to regulate nanotechnologies for years, as it became clear that nano particles were being used in all kinds of consumer products. In 2006, the agency formed the Nanotechnology Task Force. This March, the FDA formed a collaboration initiative with the Houston-based Alliance for NanoHealth (ANH) and its eight member institutions to help speed development of safe and effective medical products that use nanotechnology. But those initiatives cover medical uses of nanoscale materials, not food use.

Meantime, nanotech is estimated to be a $7 billion industry just in the US. Starting today, at UMass Amherst, the EPA and The Environmental Institute are co-hosting a conference on The Environmental Implications and Applications of Nanotechnology. Researchers from around the world will discuss the impacts of nanoparticles on the environment, as well as present new applications.

So what to do if there's a nano in your soup? At this point, prayer would be as effective as any FDA regulation....

*There's a Congressional Nanotechnology Caucus. Read about their latest briefing here. *Not a coincidence: Today, just a few days after the President left Cairo, Egypt, there's an announcement of a huge nanotechnology summit that will occur in October, in Cairo. *Read more about politicos and nanotech here. New York state senators are about to tour the state's leading nanotech academic program; the state is very busy in nanotech use, research, and education. The Obama admin has a special affection for New York....

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