Williams, David --- "The Scientific Basis for Regulating Nanotechnologies" [2010] ELECD 714; in Hodge, A. Graeme; Bowman, M. Diana; Maynard, D. Andrew (eds), "International Handbook on Regulating Nanotechnologies" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: International Handbook on Regulating Nanotechnologies

Editor(s): Hodge, A. Graeme; Bowman, M. Diana; Maynard, D. Andrew

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446731

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: The Scientific Basis for Regulating Nanotechnologies

Author(s): Williams, David

Number of pages: 17

Extract:

6 The scientific basis for regulating
nanotechnologies
David Williams


6.1 INTRODUCTION

The basis for this contribution to a book on the regulation of nanotech-
nologies is a period of personal experience at providing a scientific ration-
ale and justification for a series of measures to be undertaken by a very
important public body that had the responsibility for proposing regula-
tions that would afford protection to the general public and, where neces-
sary, susceptible individuals, in situations where new technologies were
being introduced on a significant scale. That public body is the European
Commission (EC). It is, effectively, the executive of the European Union
(EU) which, alongside the European Parliament and the Council of the
European Union, is one of the three main institutions governing the
EU. Its primary roles are to propose and enact legislation for the EU.
Currently the EU comprises 27 countries, known as the Member States, so
this responsibility is considerable. The EC operates through a number of
different mechanisms. In the areas of public health and consumer safety,
rigorous procedures are in place to ensure, as far as possible, the correct
balance between permitting new technologies and practices that have
the potential to improve the quality of life of individuals in the Member
States and provide maximum safety associated with those technologies.
Wherever situations arise in which new types of health risk arise with
the introduction of different technologies, DG Sanco, the Directorate
General for Health and Consumer Affairs, has available to it an ...