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Stratfor on Nanotechnology

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Startfor issued a short article on regulating nanotechnology. There's nothing in this article that we have not discuss, it seems, but one conclusion captures my attention:
Many see REACH as more protective of public health and the environment than TSCA. As such, there is a growing movement in the United States for the adoption of REACH-like chemical regulations. For those calling for a complete reassessment of TSCA, the revolution in nanotechnology has come at the right time. They argue that TSCA cannot cope with the challenges of nanotechnology, so therefore the law should be revamped to prepare for the next wave of technology. A number of states are currently considering their own REACH-like laws, and the "opening" of TSCA (Capitol Hill-speak for rewriting the law) seems increasingly likely in the coming years.
We have discussed this possibility on the EU-US "gap" post, but we see that if this conclusion is correct, then the US is moving towards filling the gap somewhere in the future.

The rest of the article is worth to read. It provides a good introduction in problems surrounding present-day nanotech regulation. Read more here.