ESTABLISHED IN 2001, the National Nanotechnology Initiative coordinates federal research and development. Over the past years, NNI has tried to keep pace with the growing field of nanotechnology, but it has struggled to set up a strategy to guide R&D and, specifically, to ensure that key environmental, health, and safety (EHS) research is being done.

To help NNI better manage its responsibilities, Congress is reevaluating and revising the law that governs it. On June 5, by an overwhelming vote of 407 to 6, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5940, the National Nanotechnology Initiative Amendments Act of 2008. Industry and environmental groups alike praised the bill, which emphasizes the need for EHS research.

H.R. 5940 modifies the 21st Century Nanotechnology R&D Act, which President George W. Bush signed into law in December 2003. “The federal interagency nanotechnology research program has not yet put in place a well-designed, adequately funded, and effectively executed research program focused on the environmental and safety aspects of nanotechnology,” said Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), chairman of the House Science & Technology Committee, who introduced the bill. “H.R. 5940 addresses this deficiency by requiring that a research plan, with detailed objectives and funding targets, be developed and quickly implemented,” he added.

The bill tackles several issues that have been raised over the past few years and “sets the scene for developing not only commercially successful but also safe and sustainable nanotechnologies,” says Andrew D. Maynard, chief science adviser for the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. Maynard is a member of C&EN’s editorial advisory board.

For example, the legislation would create a public database of nanotech EHS research conducted by all of the 25 federal agencies involved in NNI. Currently, the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office gathers such information, but reliability of the dataset is less than clear.

“Every year, the NNCO estimates how much of the NNI budget is going to EHS-related projects,” says Richard A. Denison, a senior scientist with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund. The estimates are controversial because the coordination office rarely releases specific information about the funding of projects, and it tends to count projects that most experts outside NNI would consider tangentially related to EHS at best, he notes. “Rather than continue to have this game played every year, this database would go far in helping to ensure a public record.”

Full Story: http://pubs.acs.org/cen/government/86/8625gov2.html