ICON holds stakeholder workshop

CONTACT: Jade Boyd
PHONE: 713-348-6778
E-MAIL: jadeboyd@rice.edu

ICON holds stakeholder workshop
International Council on Nanotechnology gathers experts for dialogue

The International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON) today concluded a two-day stakeholder workshop on nanotechnology environmental health and safety issues. This workshop, held at Rice University, was a follow-up to the meeting near Dublin, Ireland in late January 2006.

Most of the schedule over the two-day period was dedicated to an open meeting with discussion and workshops. The topics revolved around ICON’s role in the environmental health and safety (EHS) agenda and its location in the greater discourse on nanomaterial safety and regulation.

The open meeting began on Tuesday, May 9 at 1:30 PM with an overview of ICON by Director Kristen Kulinowski. She was followed by an update by Patricia Holden of University of California at Santa Barbara and Tracy Godfrey of Environmental Defense on the Current Practices for Nanomaterial Handling project recently commissioned by ICON. Terry Medley from DuPont and Scott Walsh from Environmental Defense then sought council input on their draft Framework for Managing Nanomaterials Risks. At the close of the afternoon session, ICON Operations Manager David Johnson led a demonstration of efforts to create and disseminate a comprehensive Nano-Environmental Health and Safety knowledge base that builds upon the database of citations to peer-reviewed literature maintained by the council < http://icon.rice.edu/research.cfm > and connects to other resources worldwide. Also heard from in this session were Evan Michelson on the Pew Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies’ inventory of funded nano EHS research and Art Miller on the NIOSH Nanoparticle Information Library.

On Wednesday, Intel’s Mike Garner presented an update on a proposed Roadmapping Initiative for identifying and closing knowledge gaps in Nano-Environmental Health and Safety. Three guest speakers then offered their perspectives on efforts outside the United States. Guillermo Foladari, Professor of Economics and Development Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas, México, discussed Public Policies for Nanotechnology in Latin America. T. K. Lee, Executive Director of the National Science and Technology Program for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, reviewed Taiwan’s National Program for Nanoscience and Technology. Masahiro Takemura of the National Institute for Materials Science (Japan) gave an update on Japanese efforts in nanotechnology EHS. An open workshop discussion led by L’Oréal’s Francis Quinn drew the event to a close.

A report of the event will be posted on the ICON website. The next ICON stakeholder workshop will be held toward the end of 2006 in Tokyo, Japan.