Handle nano-technology with care

African Business, March, 2003

Should we be fearful of nano-technology? Only if it is allowed to develop uncontrolled, says an international watchdog organisation dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights.

The Spain-based Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, ETC, suggests that while nano (or atom) technology promises to catapult human evolution far beyond micro-technology in a short time, its evolution must be handled with kid gloves.

Nano-technology refers to the manipulation of atoms and molecules at the level of the nanometer, one billionth of a meter. It is at this scale that quantum physics take over from classical physics and the properties of elements change character in novel and unpredictable ways. ETC Group prefers the more descriptive term "Atom-technology" because the manipulation of matter will not stop at the nano-scale.

Atom-technology refers to a spectrum of new technologies that operate at the nano-scale and below - that is, the manipulation of molecules, atoms and sub-atomic particles to create new products.

Of concern to ETC is the rapidly developing ability of scientists to modify matter - from genes to atoms. "While society is mired in acrimonious debates on the promises and perils of genetic modification," says Pat Mooney, executive director of ETC Group, "industrial enterprises are harnessing an atomic engineering revolution that could modify all matter - both living and non-living - and transform every aspect of work and life."

Rooney worries that the world's most powerful emerging technology is developing in an almost-total political and regulatory vacuum.

"Public and private research at the nano-scale is evolving beneath the radar screen of civil society and government regulators," explains Rooney. "Because nano-scale technologies can be applied to virtually every industrial sector, no regulatory body is taking the lead. And because many of its products are nanosized versions of conventional compounds, regulatory scrutiny has been deemed unnecessary."

In a new publication, The Big Down: Atomtech - Technologies Converging at the Nano-scale, the first comprehensive and critical analysis of nano-technology for civil society and policy makers, ETC notes that Atom-technology is well on its way to creating an economic and social revolution expected to be worth $1 trillion by 2015, affecting virtually

all sectors of the economy.

"Who will control nano-technology?" it asks. The ETC Group proposes that governments declare an immediate moratorium on commercial production of new nano-materials and launch a transparent global process for evaluating the socio-economic, health and environmental implications of the technology.