Does EPA Have an Adequate Strategy to Oversee Nanotechnologies?
To: ENVIRONMENTAL EDITORS
Contact: Sharon McCarter, Director of Outreach and Communications, +1-202-691-4016, sharon.mccarter@wilsoncenter.org
WASHINGTON, July 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Does the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have an adequate strategy to ensure that nanotechnology is being safely commercialized? Can it get needed information through a proposed program where companies voluntarily submit details about the nature of the nanomaterials they are using to manufacture products and about their steps to ensure safety? What incentives, if any, exist for firms to take part in this new EPA program? And how appropriate is the agency’s approach for classifying nanoscale substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)?
Former EPA Assistant Administrator for Policy and Senior Advisor to the Wilson Center’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies J. Clarence (Terry) Davies will address these questions at the EPA’s public meeting on its proposed voluntary Nanoscale Materials Stewardship Program (NMSP).
The meeting will take place on Thursday, August 2 at 9:00 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Rosslyn, Arlington, Virginia; see: http:// www.epa.gov/oppt/nano/nmsppubmtg.htm
Nanotechnology was incorporated into more than $30 billion in manufactured goods in 2005. By 2014, an estimated $2.6 trillion in manufactured goods globally will use nanotechnology, or 15 percent of total global output.
Who: J. Clarence Davies, Senior Advisor to the Project on Emerging
Nanotechnologies and Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future.
Davies served during the first Bush Administration as Assistant
Administrator for Policy at EPA. He also wrote the original
version of what became the Toxic Substances Control Act.
What: Testimony before a public meeting on EPA’s proposed Nanoscale
Materials Stewardship Program
When: Thursday, August 2, 2007, 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Where: Holiday Inn Rosslyn
1900 Fort Myer Drive
Arlington, VA 22209
About Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is the ability to measure, see, manipulate and manufacture things usually between 1 and 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; a human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers wide.
The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies is an initiative launched by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and The Pew Charitable Trusts in 2005. It is dedicated to helping business, government and the public anticipate and manage possible health and environmental implications of nanotechnology. For more information about the project, log on to http:// www.nanotechproject.org.
Media interested in Dr. Davies’ testimony should contact Sharon McCarter at (202) 691-4016 or sharon.mccarter@wilsoncenter.org.
SOURCE Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
(c) 2007 U.S. Newswire. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.