ABSTRACT
In recent years, the importance of risk assessment in association with nanotechnology has been widely recognized by the scienti c community, governments, and regulating bodies. is was emphasized in 2004 in a report published by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineers investigating the possible opportunities and uncertainties of nanotechnology (Dowling et al. 2004). It stated that although nanotechnology does have the potential to provide highly e cient products for a wide and diverse range of applications, it is imperative that an understanding of the possible health and occupational risks of the diverse array of di erent materials intended for use is attained urgently. It was further highlighted by this report that both biological systems and the environment should be considered in relation to the potential hazardous e ects of the manufacturing, use, and disposal of nanomaterials (Dowling et al. 2004). ese suggestions were further emphasized in recent reports by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
14.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................14-1 14.2 Background ............................................................................................................................ 14-2
14.4 Summary and Future Perspectives for Nanotoxicology ................................................14-17 Acknowledgments ...........................................................................................................................14-18 References .........................................................................................................................................14-18
A airs (DEFRA) (NRCG 2005, 2007), the Scienti c Committee on Emerging and Newly Identi ed Health Risks (SCENIHR 2006, 2007a, 2009), and the Council for Science and Technology (CST, 2007). In addition to such reports, a large number of conferences, workshops, journals, books, and interest groups have been established that are dedicated to the risk assessment of nanomaterials. Within such interest groups, news on risk assessment of nanomaterials are quickly communicated within the research community on Web sites that are dedicated to the safety of nanomaterials (such as www.safenano.org) in recognition of the fact that communication between di erent groups for the bene t of quicker and better nanomaterial risk assessment is paramount.
