Nanomaterials

The unregulated and increasingly widespread use of nanomaterials poses a risk to health, according to the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP).

The US-based pressure group has uncovered over 1,300 agricultural products that state that they include engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) — none of which have been subjected to a pre-market safety assessment. Yet academic studies have shown that ENMs are hazardous, and their use ignores an order from US President Barack Obama that steps be taken to protect human health, worker safety and the environment.

Part of the explanation is a lack of transparency over ENMs — on the grounds of commercial sensitivity.

However, the IATP has highlighted the role that budget cuts on regulators, both in the US and internationally, have played in this situation. Steve Suppan of the IATP said that “administrative, technical and budgetary constraints are keeping US and international agencies well behind the pace and variety of product commercialisation”.