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Lessons from the Sustainability Movement: Toward An Integrative Decision-Making Framework for Nanotechnology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Mark E. Meaney
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Extract

Like biotechnology before it, nanotechnology is beginning to provoke opposition from environmentalists concerned about the ethics of the development and application of nanotechnologies. Given the lack of data on environmental health and safety regarding how nanoparticles might impact the environment and effect the health of the human body, some environmentalists have called for limits on the production of nanoproducts until more research can be done to prove their safety. On the other side, while nanotech scientists and engineers agree that additional study of possible harmful effects is in order, they argue it would be unethical to turn our backs on what nanotechnology may do to help clean up the environment and improve health. They argue that a ban on nanomaterials would be shortsighted.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , Winter 2006 , pp. 682 - 688
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2006

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