In the hall at the University of São Paulo School of Mining, Materials Science and Engineering is an exhibit of electronic microscopy photographs of nanomaterials which have been engineered to between atomic and molecular size. One of the most beautiful photographs is titled “Campos do trigo”, that is, "fields of wheat," represented by carbon nanotubes synthesized on a silicon layer. These waves of grain measure about one hundred millionth of a meter. Nanotechnology requires visualization of materials at this scale to manipulate them for use in consumer and industrial products.
I was invited to give one presentation on agriculture and nanotechnology and another on the regulatory and trade policy outlook for nanotechnology at X Semisonoma, the 10th international seminar of Renanosoma, the Brazilian Network on Nanotechnology, Society and Environment. The former presentation was based in part on an IATP report on the effect of nanomaterials on soil health. The latter presentation reflected a small section in IATP’s just published report on agriculture and food under the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
The week-long seminar covered a broad array of issues affecting the use of Engineered Nanoscale Materials (ENMs) in consumer and industrial products. Among Renanosoma’s most powerful members is the Metal Workers’ Union, which is lobbying the Brazilian government to require companies to report to the unions which kind of ENMs are being used in union workplaces and pay for a hierarchy of occupational safety and health controls. The hierarchy spans from workplace design to safety procedures to protective clothing and masks. The carbon nanotubes in “Campos do trigo” are beautiful to look at, but cause cancerous lesions when put on the lungs of laboratory rats.
In August, the Brazilian government committed 440 million reales (about $186 million USD) to support nanotechnology research and development in 2014—further solidifying its position as a global leader in nanotech development. However, as with the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative budget, there is almost no budget dedicated to research into the environmental, health and safety effects of ENMs manufacturing. One of the great challenges of such research is to develop nanotech specific toxicology metrics that would serve as a basis for the risk assessment of ENMs as they are used in the workplace, not just as they are evaluated in laboratories.
A presentation via Skype by Professor Pieter van Broekhuizen outlined how such metrics might be developed. Current toxicology metrics and regulation are mass-based. However, the minute mass itself of ENMs is irrelevant to the chemical reactivity that may be toxic. Rather, said van Broekhuizen, to measure ENM toxicity requires a metric that takes into account the density of nanoparticles in a three-dimensional surface area. Van Broekhuizen’s “Nano Reference Values” of toxicity are defined by the number of nanoparticles within a cubic centimeter over an eight hour Time Weighted Average (TWA), i.e., the length of a typical workday. For nanosilver, for example, 20,000 particles per square centimeter TWA suffices to trigger a precautionary approach to use of nanosilver in the workplace. Different classes of different nanomaterials have different particle counts for triggering precautionary controls in the workplace. Such nano-specific reference values are not unique within toxicology, but they are laboratory developed rather than workplace developed. Broekhuizen’s consultancy works with labor unions, government scientists and employer associations to develop Nano Reference Values that represent the metrics of toxicity to which workers are exposed in the workplace.
Van Broekhuizen’s research, in a U.S. context, is unusual in that it proposes a Precautionary Approach to use of ENMs in the workplace. These Nano Reference Values are not yet part of Dutch or European Union regulation of ENMs but their development with the cooperation of employers to protect workers is a considerable advance over the U.S. regulatory situation, in which the Precautionary Approach continues to be regarded as a disguised non-tariff barrier to trade.
The seminar featured ENM presentations by University of São Paulo graduate students and post-doctoral researchers on research and development phases of various ENM applications. Professor José María Monserrat’s presentation of his introduction to nano-toxicology long-distance learning course was not only impressive for its scientific content, but also for its pedagogy, and use of the internet. With a budget of just $300,000, Professor Monserrat was able to offer two free on-line courses, one of 20 hours and the other 120 hours, to introduce hundreds of students at dozens of Latin American universities to the basics of nanotechnology and nano-toxicology. I suggested that the dozen or so law school participants in the seminar should be signing up for the course to begin to acquire the scientific literacy that future Brazilian nanotech regulators would need.
In August, the Brazilian legislature rejected a bill that would have required the labeling of nano-cosmetics, including sunscreens. As with the rejection of earlier legislation to regulate ENMs and nanotechnologies, officials claimed that labeling would lead to consumer alarm about a technology in which the government was investing heavily. Luiz Carlos Olivera, an occupational health and safety expert for the Steel Workers Union of São Paulo, said that legislation had been rejected in 2010 to require employers to disclose to unions when ENMs were being used in their manufacturing and to design nano-specific worker safety controls.
Nevertheless, Brazilian labor unions continue to campaign for such legislation and are building a scientifically robust worker education program in ENMs and nanotechnology related worker safety. Three labor union comic books on nanotechnology were distributed as part of the seminar materials, along with the Portuguese language version of “Principles for the Oversight of Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials”, to which IATP is a signatory. Because of the political power of Brazilian labor unions, relative to their U.S. counterparts, when nanotechnology regulation comes to Brazil, it will likely be as a result of the combined efforts of the labor unions, nano-toxicologists, such as Professor Monserrat and Dr. van Broekhuizen, and the public education activity of Renanosoma and its webcast program, “Nanotechnology Inside Out”.
I participated in the 232nd webcast of the program, hosted by Dr. Paulo Martins. That program was a round table dedicated to exploring how “Nanotechnology Inside Out” could improve. With the stated purpose of ensuring that the public who pays for nanotechnology research has a say in its future development and regulation, “Nanotechnology Inside Out” will surely be part of nanotechnology’s future in Brazil.
