Experts invited to contribute included Douglas Parr of Greenpeace, Vicki Colvin of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology at Rice University, US, Jürgen Altmann of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany, Vyvyan Howard of the University of Liverpool, UK, Günter Oberdörster of the University of Rochester, US, and Mark Welland of Cambridge University, UK.
The workshop concluded that it was important to distinguish between free and fixed nanoparticles, as fixed nanoparticles are much less likely to be of concern due to their immobilization; that unintentionally released nanosized particles created by conventional technologies such as combustion engines pose serious concerns; that further studies are needed on nanoparticles engineered by nanotechnology as they could be of serious concern; that you can’t predict the adverse effects of nanoparticles from the behaviour of the bulk material; and that dose-response and exposure data for nanoparticles is currently scarce.
The report also makes 12 recommendations - including the creation of institutions to monitor nanotechnologies, the elimination or minimization of the production and unintentional release of waste nanosized particles, the development of guidelines and standards, and the revision of existing regulations where appropriate - and identifies policy options.