Nanotechnology : Health and Environmental Risks, Second Edition

This accessible book introduces the use of risk analysis as a tool to help you make more informed decisions about nanotechnology product development. It provides concise, informative narratives on toxicology, occupational health and safety, and the environmental implications of nanotechnology. This second edition includes new perspectives and updates on the technical, societal, and regulatory developments in the field. It reviews current concerns, discusses sustainability and life cycle analysis, describes methods for evaluating nanotechnology risks, surveys international efforts, and presents cutting-edge approaches for managing risk.

Should you adopt nanotechnology? If you have already adopted it, what do you need to know? What are the risks? Nanomaterials and nanotechnologies are revolutionizing the ways we treat disease, produce energy, manufacture products, and attend to our daily wants and needs. To continue to capture the promise of these transformative products, however, we need to ask critical questions about the broader impacts of nanotechnology on society and the environment. Exploring these questions, the second edition of Nanotechnology: Health and Environmental Risks gives you the latest tools to understand the risks of nanotechnology and make better decisions about using it.

Examining the state of the science, the book discusses what is known, and what still needs to be understood, about nanotechnology risk. It looks at the uses of nanotechnology for energy, industry, medicine, technology, and consumer applications and explains how to determine whether there is risk—even when there is little reliable evidence—and how to manage it. Contributors cover a wide range of topics, including:

• Current concerns, among them perceived risks and the challenges of evaluating emerging technology
• A historical perspective on product safety and chemicals policy
• The importance of being proactive about identifying and managing health and environmental risks during product development
• How the concepts of sustainability and life cycle assessment can guide nanotechnology product development
• Methods for evaluating nanotechnology risks, including screening approaches and research
• How to manage risk when working with nanoscale materials at the research stage and in occupational environments
• What international organizations are doing to address risk issues
• How risk assessment can inform environmental decision making

Written in easy-to-understand language, without sacrificing complexity or scientific accuracy, this book offers a wide-angle view of nanotechnology and risk. Supplying cutting-edge approaches and insight, it explains what types of risks could exist and what you can do to address them.

What’s New in This Edition

• Updates throughout, reflecting advances in the field, new literature, and policy developments
• A new chapter on nanotechnology risk communication, including insights into risk perceptions and the mental models people use to evaluate technological risks
• An emphasis on developing nanotechnology products that are sustainable in the long term
• Advances in the understanding of nanomaterials toxicity
• Cutting-edge research on occupational exposure to nanoparticles
• Changes in the international landscape of organizations working on the environmental, health, and safety aspects of nanotechnologies