NEWS OF THE WEEK INTERNATIONAL
U.K. RESPONDS TO NANOTECH REPORT Britain to review nanotech regulations and research but offers no funding
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HE B R I T I S H GOVERNMENT
and the U.K.'s leading scien tific academies are firing re ports at each other, but critics from environmen tal groups charge that they are failing to arrive at a sys tem for regulating nanomaterials. Nonetheless, Britain's minister of science and innova tion, David Lord Sainsbury, insists that the U.K. wants to be a world leader in this area of sci- Sainsbury ence as well as influence internationally any new regulatory system. Sainsbury's position became clear during his remarks at the opening of a nanotechnology ex hibit in the Science Museum of London on Feb. 25. The govern ment's responsibility is "to make certain that the regulation of new developments is considered at an early stage, that the public is in volved in the process, and that any necessary changes to the regula tory system are made," he said. To do so, the U.K. government will review current regulations as they might relate to nanotechnology and set up a cross-government group to coordinate research to underpin safety assessments. Sainsbury's plans, however, do not include any new research funding. His comments were, in part, a response to a joint report analyzing opportunities and un certainties in nanotechnology is sued last July by the Royal Soci ety and the Royal Academy of Engineering. In that report, the HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
two academies said that nanoparticles and nanotubes should be treated as new chemicals under U.K. and European legislation and recommended im mediate research in to the materials' po tential health and environmental ef fects while limiting exposure to them. "The government must commit ade quate funding t o improve the under standing of any po tentialrisksto human health and the envi ronment" from nano materials, the academies said in a written response to Sainsbury's comments. Ann Ρ Dowling, proCONFLICT
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fessor of mechanical engineering at the University ofCambridge and chair of the academies' nanotech working group, pointed out that "the government is taking the reg ulatory implications of nanotechnologies seriously and has com mitted to acting on our concerns." Critics of nanotech were less conciliatory The U.K. government has "made a significant mistake in confining its next moves to only dealing with nanotoxicology and even then failing to find extra fi nancial support for the necessary studies," saysJimThomas, program manager in the U.K. for environ mental advocate ETC Group. The academies, and even ETC Group, were more upbeat about the U.K. government's commit ment to a public dialogue on the direction of nanotech R&D and possible regulation. Industry wants to be part of this dialogue. Agroup of large ma terials and technology compa nies—including BASF, QinetiQ Nanomaterials, Oxonica, Syrris, andJR Nanotech—has launched the Nanotech Association to in form and promote the uses of nanotechnology—ANN THAYER
IN BRIER: MARS ICE
This image of an area near the martian equator, taken by the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, shows what appear to be frozen ice fields covered by vol canic dust. Only about 5 million years old, the fields might be a good place to search for evidence of life, espe cially if the sea has liq uid water underneath.
INTEREST
Scientists Decry New NIH Ethics Rules
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he new conflict-of-interest rules put in place by the National Institutes of Health go too far, says the Assembly of Scientists, a group organized to represent the concerns of NIH intramural scientists regard ing these ethics issues. The Assembly of Scientists agrees that rules are necessary to ensure that outside activities of intramural scientists don't create an actual or apparent conflict of interest. But the group worries that the new rules—specif ically those limiting employees' stock hold ings in drug and biotech companies—will make it difficult to keep talented staff and re cruit new researchers. The group's 19-member executive com mittee met with NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni late last month about these concerns. The meeting was useful and productive, ac cording to executive committee member Alan
N. Schechter, a section chief in the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases. Zerhouni "understands the seriousness with which scientists are responding to the very severe and abrupt changes in policy," Schechter tells C&EN. "He's made a commit ment to do as much as he can to modify these changes to make the situation more conducive to continuing a strong NIH intra mural program." Concern over these rules is not limited to NIH staff. In a letter to Zerhouni, Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) questioned the agency's "shotgun approach" to the issue. "The dele terious effect of these rules on the ability of the NIH to recruit and retain the caliber of scientists required by its special mission is of great concern to me," Van Hollen wrote. -SUSAN MORRISSEY
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