FDA Sees Nanotech Challenges In Every Product Category

An anonymous reader writes "The Food and Drug Administration's Nanotechnology Task Force has passed on its first report into the ever-growing field of nanotech products. As a result, the FDA is implementing changes that will allow it to oversee nanotech products in every category withinin its purview. Nanotech products are 'estimated to grow to $2.6 trillion in manufactured goods globally by 2014. As the Task Force report highlights, nanotechnology impacts every area of FDA responsibility--drugs, drug delivery systems, cosmetics, medical devices, and food products. Overall, the agency regulates products that are worth nearly $1.5 trillion annually and that account for almost 25 percent of US consumer spending.'"

Who's Surprised...

[StealthyRoid]

That the FDA found an excuse to stick its dick where it doesn't belong? The entire article reads like one great big FDA power grab. Lines about expanding the FDA's authority and jurisdiction to areas where it doesn't currently exist, and strengthening it where it's weak because the shibboleth of nanotechnology will provide them a FUD cover don't exactly fill me with joy. The FDA is already the single largest impediment to development of drugs, and allowing them to interfere with a fledgling technology under the banner of "safety" is only going to hurt future development and us, the consumers.

Of course, these new regulatory powers will necessitate budget increases for the FDA. Is there a single government agency that has ever, in the history of time, said "You know what guys? We actually have more money than we need. Go ahead and take this back, use it somewhere else, maybe give it back to the people."? Of course not. Government agencies ALWAYS try to increase their funding and power base, and it's silly that we let them just because they use big words and imply that, if they don't get what they want, Borg devices will make their way into everyone's bodies via a carrot or something. Remember, the government relies on the fact that most people are too stupid to tie their shoes, let alone parse the rhetoric they spit out.

We have to protect research and development of new tech, including nanotech, and suffocating the ability of companies to produce commercially profitable nanotechnology through over-regulation and intervention will only hold back advances in the tech and decreases in the cost.

FDA might be doing a halfway decent job?

[Bondolon]

I don't necessarily see the FDA as a bad thing, since most of what they do results in me not dying from botulism. They're right to say that nanotech affects them, as nanotech is likely to go into all of the above-listed things. A bit of accountability would be nice, but I'm not expecting that any time soon from the government of the US. In any case, I just hope they don't screw it up.

Regulating nanomaterial papertowels

[maggard]

The thing is, nanotech enters our biosphere, and our bodies, in novel ways.

Skin doesn't really block it. And once inside us it can even pass the blood/brain barrier. That's not saying all nanotech materials are gonna do that, but I want some assurances that the nifty new coating on my paper towels isn't soaking into me.

Unless the FDA acts and gets this put within their purview then it won't be. Frankly an entire category of new materials, of a scale theyre inherently biologically interactive, being widely distributed into the market, is cause for concern for their impact. To me that justifies a little judicious oversight.

Grey goo [wikipedia.org] isn't so much a fear as industrial poisoning. I'd hate to find out in 2012 that the nano-paint on the 2010 Honda nano-flakes off and then does awful things to lung tissue resulting in asbestos-like problems. Or the nano-polish in my stovetop cleaner aerosolizes (does that apply at this scale?) and polishes corneas - from the inside.

Clearly "Bad things nobody wants to happen".

But, again, without mandates the FDA won't be able to research, perhaps regulate, or eventually react. Even though I think the FDA is a severely compromised agency, often too close to the industries they regulate and constrained by political pressure from the administration ("Coal tar? Good for the sinuses! I sniff some from the great state of _insert_ ev'ry day!") I prefer it over nothing.

Nanotech == Molecular == Already regulated

[gregor-e]

Anything now posing under the rubric of "nanotechnology" is just pretending to be new and different technology. So far, it's all just molecules, most of which are produced using the same old chemical processes we've always used, and which have the same inherent benefits and risks as any other new molecule. I am disturbed that this fashion trend of dubbing new molecular products "nanotech" is now being used as an excuse for specific regulatory actions. We already have laws and regulations governing testing and deployment of new molecules.