Council of Canadian Academies panel to assess nanotech from regulatory perspective

U of T dean to chair expert panel

The federal government has taken the first steps towards establishing a regulatory regime for nanotechnology. The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) has secured the services of Dr Pekka Sinervo to lead an expert panel on the potential health and environmental risk of nanotechnology. The subsequent report — due in early 2008 — was requested by Health Canada and will be used to assess the state of knowledge for nanotechnology and establish appropriate regulations.

Sinervo – dean of arts and science at the Univ of Toronto – has the task of directing a group of 15 Canadian and international experts in various fields relating the nanotech ranging from physical scientists, industry executives, regulatory officials, and representatives from the bioethics, insurance and product liability communities.

Sinervo has in Ottawa recently to meet with government officials to clarify and interpret the mandate – which will complement work conducted in recent years by the office of the Nation Science Advisor and the Advisory Council on S&T.

"We needed to make sure the panel understood what was expected of it. The original question was drawn up about one and a half years ago and prior to the Council being formed," he says. "We need a comprehensive approach and we need it quickly ... Right now the government is using a collection of regulatory frameworks and they're trying to shoehorn nanotech into them."

Sinervo is involved in many different scientific bodies and initiatives domestically and internationally. But he says there were compelling reasons to accept the invitation to lead the CCA nanotech panel.

"This had enough intellectual and public service importance to make it worthwhile," he says. "There is no standardization of vocabulary for nanotechnology and existing definitions are quite vague … Canada has not taken a greater, coordinated approach to nanotechnology and we need a coherent approach from a government regulation point-of-view."

Based on knowledge accumulated to date, there's little doubt that nanotechnology will have a pervasive influence on all sectors of the economy. And as research reveals more about the behaviour of nano-scale materials, there could be a revolution in knowledge that will impact on quality of life in many unforeseen ways.

In the area of electronics, for instance, researchers have found that electricity at the nanoscale display properties not observed at a larger scale, including the ability to propagate like light.

At a recent breakfast presentation on Parliament Hill, Dr Robert Wolkow, a principal investigator of molecular scale devices at the National Institute for Nanotechnology, said the average person is confused by nanotechnology, the pace of discovery and the direction some researchers are taking.

"We need new protective measures. we need to stay apace," says Wolkow. "We also must avoid nano-Kyoto deadlines and listen to ethical and legal experts, many of whom work at NINT."

Sinervo says there have already been many surprises from nanotech research with many more anticipated.

"How the evolution of nanotechnology will happen is still not clear," says says. "We need an appropriate framework to promote innovation, not stifle it."

R$