Our campaign
We are campaigning to ensure that nano products are developed and marketed responsibly.
We are campaigning to ensure that nano products are developed and marketed responsibly.
Nanotechnology – technology using materials on a tiny scale – is already making its way into our lives, with medical treatments and new consumer products becoming available.
Nanoparticles in some face creams are claimed to have anti-ageing effects
New advances, such as drugs which can seek out cancer cells, self-cleaning windows or food packaging that tells you when food is going off, clearly have the potential to improve people’s lives. However, Which? is concerned that the speed of change means that our understanding of potential risks isn’t necessarily keeping up.
Which? is concerned that the government is failing to get to grips with this exciting new area and ensure that consumers can take advantage of the benefits without being put at unnecessary risk.
The government has established a voluntary reporting scheme to try and get a better understanding of what is being developed, but has had a very limited response.
It is also clear that there are gaps in current regulations that mean that some nanomaterials aren’t properly controlled.
Nanotechnologies could bring many benefits – and are already doing so. But leading government expert bodies, such as the Royal Society, have raised concerns that some uses of nanotechnologies could present risks because we don’t know enough about how materials behave at this scale.
They aren’t so worried about materials where the nanoparticles are fixed eg. in computers or phones for example, but they are concerned about manufactured ‘free nanoparticles’ such as those used in foods, cosmetics and other consumer products.
These expert scientific bodies have called on the government to do more research into the health and environmental risks of free nanoparticles so that their safety can be adequately assessed.
Legally products can only be on sale if they are safe, but experts are still struggling to work out how you assess what is safe when it is in nano form.It can’t be assumed that a chemical in a nano form will behave the same as it does in a bigger form. It could be more reactive, for example, and the small size could mean that nanoparticles are able to get into different parts of the body.
Which?’s 10 point action plan calls on the government to make sure the technology is developed responsibly and safely.
As nanotechnologies have so much potential, the public needs to know more about how and where they are being used, and have more of a say in the way that they are produced.
We think that the government needs to do more to tell people about what is happening and find out what they want.
In November 2007, Which? held a citizens’ panel to look at the consumer issues raised by nanotechnologies. Keep visiting these pages to find out what people had to say.
Back to nanotechnologies main page.
Nanotechnologies: small scale, big impact (PDF: 81Kb)23 January 2008Which? briefing on the consumer implications of nanotechnologies, outlining government activity so far and action required.
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