Abstract
We are on the verge of a nanotech revolution but to date almost no State has legislated effectively to manage the potential environmental risks that might be generated by nanoparticles. Instead, self-regulation and the creation of norms by other social actors have emerged to fill the gap. The temporality of these new forms of regulation—and the ability to deal with future risks—represent challenges for the legal order, which must intervene to grant legal effect to new regulatory production. By analysing publications from ISO TC229 (on nanotechnology) and the comprehensive principles regarding nanotechnologies and materials advanced by NanoAction (a project of the International Centre for Technology Assessment), this chapter proposes a new self-regulatory model to manage nanotechnological risks and serve as legal guidance for researchers, laboratories, research centres and nanoscale industries. Considering a range of social and environmental factors, the model systematically links the NanoAction principles to existing rules and principles in Brazilian law.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
StatNano (2017).
- 2.
Schwab (2016).
- 3.
Interdisciplinarity (2015).
- 4.
Ulijn and Riedo (2016).
- 5.
Luhmann (1990).
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Beck (1992).
- 8.
Beck (2006).
- 9.
Ibid, p. 333.
- 10.
NanoAction (2007).
- 11.
Interdisciplinarity (2015).
- 12.
Bardin (2013).
- 13.
Stone et al. (2017).
- 14.
Maynard (2011).
- 15.
ISO/TC 229 (2017).
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
Nature Nanotechnology (2016), p. 733.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Warheit (2010).
- 20.
Foladori and Invernizzi (2016).
- 21.
Vaseashta (2015).
- 22.
Shatkin and Kim (2015).
- 23.
He and Hwang (2016).
- 24.
Santhosh et al. (2016), p. 1116.
- 25.
Warheit (2010), p. 4777.
- 26.
Ibid, p. 4777.
- 27.
Xiangang et al. (2016).
- 28.
Krug (2014).
- 29.
Owen (2011), p. 5.
- 30.
Gatti and Montanari (2008).
- 31.
Wackera et al. (2016).
- 32.
Snir and Ravid (2015), p. 21.
- 33.
Park and Yeo (2016), pp. 225–226.
- 34.
Rodine-Hardy (2016), p. 89.
- 35.
Kahru and Ivask (2013), p. 823.
- 36.
Hischier and Walser (2012).
- 37.
- 38.
Materials on the Nanoscale (2016), p. 25.
- 39.
Azoulay and Buonsante (2014).
- 40.
Gonçalves (2013).
- 41.
Stone et al. (2017).
- 42.
Wackera et al. (2016).
- 43.
Stone et al. (2017).
- 44.
NanoAction (2007).
- 45.
Stone et al. (2016).
- 46.
Brazil (2010).
- 47.
Brazil (2010).
References
Azoulay D, Buonsante V (2014) Regulation of nanomaterials in the US: proposed measures to fill in the gap. Eur J Risk Regul 2:228–235. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1867299X00003652
Bardin L (2013) L’analyse De Contenu, 2nd edn. PUF, Paris
Beck U (1992) Risk society: towards a new modernity (published in association with theory, culture & society). SAGE, London
Beck U (2006) Living in the world risk society. A Hobhouse Memorial Public Lecture given on Wednesday 15 February 2006 at the London School of economics. Econ Soc 35(3):329–345. https://doi.org/10.1080/03085140600844902
Brazil (2010) Law No. 12305 of 2 August 2010. http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/_ato2007-2010/2010/lei/l12305.htm. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
Foladori G, Invernizzi N (2016) La Regulación de las nanotechnologies: una mirada desde las diferencias EUA-UE. Vigilância Sanitária em Debate 4(2):8–20. https://doi.org/10.3395/2317-269x.00726
Gatti AM, Montanari S (2008) Nanopathology. The health impact of nanoparticles. Pan Stanford, Singapore
Gonçalves V (2013) Critical approach of the use of economic models in precautionary risk management. Eur J Risk Regul 3:335–345. http://ejrr.lexxion.eu/article/EJRR/2013/3/286. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
He X, Hwang HM (2016) Nanotechnology in food science: functionality, applicability, and safety assessment. J Food Drug Anal 24(4):671–681. http://www.jfda-online.com/article/S1021-9498(16)30075-8/pdf. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
Hischier R, Walser T (2012) Life cycle assessment of engineered nanomaterials: state of the art and strategies to overcome existing gaps. Sci Total Environ 425:271–282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.03.001
Interdisciplinarity (2015) Nature 525:325. http://www.nature.com/news/interdisciplinarity-1.18295. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
ISO/TC 229 (2017). http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_technical_committee?commid=381983. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
Kahru A, Ivask A (2013) Mapping the dawn of nanoecotoxicological research. ACC Chem Res 46(3):823–833. https://doi.org/10.1021/ar3000212
Krug HF (2014) Nanosafety research-are we on the right track? Angew Chem Int Ed 53:12304–12319. https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.201403367
Luhmann N (1990) Sociedad y sistema: la ambición de la teoría. Paidós, Barcelona
Materials on the Nanoscale—uniform description system version 2.0 (2016) Chem Int 38(6):25–25. https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2016-0620
Maynard AD (2011) Do not define nanomaterials. Nature 475:31. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v475/n7354/full/475031a.html. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
Nadoveza D, Koukias A, Karakoyun F, Kiritsis D (2013) A concept for graph-based LCA analysis tool. In: Conference: advances in production management systems (APMS), Sep 2013, State College, PA, United States, vol 415. Springer, IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, AICT, Berlin, pp 410–417. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41263-9_51
NanoAction (2007) Principles for the oversight of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials. http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/files/final-pdf-principles-for-oversight-of-nanotechnologies_80684.pdf. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
Nature Nanotechnology (2016) A matter of scale. v.II, set. 2006 (editorial). https://www.nature.com/articles/nnano.2016.180. Accessed 24 Feb 2018
OECD (2017) Working party on nanotechnology (WPN): vision statement. https://www.oecd.org/sti/nano/oecdworkingpartyonnanotechnologywpnvisionstatement.htm. Retrieved 18 May 2019
Owen D (2011) The conundrum: how scientific innovation, increased efficiency, and good intentions can make our energy and climate problems worse. Penguin Group, New York
Park HG, Yeo MK (2016) Nanomaterial regulatory policy for human health and environment. Mol Toxicol 12:223–236. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13273-016-0027-9
Rodine-Hardy K (2016) Nanotechnology and global environmental politics: transatlantic divergence. Global Environ Polit 16(3):89–105. https://doi.org/10.1162/GLEP_a_00367
Santhosh C et al (2016) Role of nanomaterials in water treatment applications: a review. Chem Eng J 306:1116–1137. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2016.08.053
Schwab K (2016) The fourth industrial revolution. Edipro, São Paulo
Shatkin JA, Kim B (2015) Cellulose nanomaterials: life cycle risk assessment, and environmental health and safety roadmap. Environ Sci Nano 2:477–499. https://doi.org/10.1039/C5EN00059A
Snir R, Ravid G (2015) Global nanotechnology regulatory governance from a network analysis perspective. Forthcoming in Regulation & Governance, pp 1–31. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2626808. Accessed 26 Feb 2018
StatNano (2017) Nanotechnology products database 2017. http://product.statnano.com/. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
Stone V et al (2016) Research priorities relevant to development or updating of nano-relevant regulations and guidelines. http://www.safenano.org/news/news-articles/eu-nanosafety-cluster-publishes-research-regulatory-roadmap. Retrieved 18 May 2019
Stone V et al (2017) Research priorities relevant to development or updating of nano-relevant regulations and guidelines. http://www.safenano.org/news/news-articles/eu-nanosafety-cluster-publishes-research-regulatory-roadmap. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
Ulijn RV, Riedo E (2016) Learning to think systems. Nat Nanotech 11:824. http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v11/n9/full/nnano.2016.161.html. Accessed 18 Feb 2018
Vaseashta A (2015) Life cycle analysis of nanoparticles: risk, assessment, and sustainability. DEStech Publications, Lancaster
Wackera MG, Proykova A, Santos GML (2016) Dealing with nanosafety around the globe-regulation vs. innovation. Int J Pharm 509:95–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpharm.2016.05.015
Warheit DB (2010) Debunking some misconceptions about nanotoxicology. Nano Lett 10(12):4777–4782. https://doi.org/10.1021/nl103432w
Xiangang H, Dandan L, Gao Y, Zhou Q (2016) Knowledge gaps between nanotoxicological research and nanomaterial safety. Environ Int 94:8–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2016.05.001
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the following people. We are grateful to the various interviewees for the time they took to talk to us about their work, the anonymous referees for their very helpful suggestions, and various people at conferences, seminars, and so on, over the last few years for their comments on previous versions of this chapter. We are particularly grateful to the students and researchers of the JUSNANO Research Group (Brazil) and the Centro de Investigação e Desenvolvimento sobre Direito e Sociedade (CEDIS), the Faculdade de Direito da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (Portugal) and the Instituto Jurídico Portucalense (IJP), and the Universidade Portucalense, Porto (Portugal).
Funding
This research has been conducted by the authors in the context of the following research projects:
1. ‘Nanotechnologies as an example of innovation: in search of structuring elements to evaluate the benefits and risks produced from the nanoscale in the scenario of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and of the Ethical, Legal and Social Impacts–ELSI’, Project Support Research/Call CNPq/MCTI (Brazil) n. 25/2015 Humanities, Social and Applied Social Sciences.
2. ‘Observatory on the Legal Impacts of Nanotechnologies: structuring essential elements for the development of dialogue between the Sources of Law from regulatory indicators to research and industrial production based on the nano scale’, Support for Research Projects/MCTI/CNPq/Universal 14/2014 (Brazil).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Engelmann, W., Hupffer, H.M., Von Hohendorff, R. (2020). Potential Legal Avenues for Managing the Environmental Risks of Nanotechnology. In: Amaral Junior, A.d., Almeida, L.d., Klein Vieira, L. (eds) Sustainable Consumption. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16985-5_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-16985-5_26
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-16984-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-16985-5
eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)