ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the widespread tendency among policymakers and safety regulators to manage a new technology by defaulting to existing regulatory measures. It highlights some of the implications of regulating technological advances using well- established rules and principles. The chapter focuses on recent regulatory responses to nanotechnologies, drawing on specific examples from the European Union (EU) and Australia to demonstrate the propensity—certainly in the initial stages of technological development—to rely on existing, generically worded regulatory measures. It also discusses steps taken more recently to amend existing regulations as they apply to nanotechnology-based products. The chapter looks at developments in the field of synthetic biology. It identifies some of the major issues currently facing safety regulators, and again highlights the tendency in the first instance to defer to existing regulatory structures. The chapter further focuses on a specific application of synthetic biology: the engineered Aedes aegypti mosquitoes.
