V. Transparency

Assessment and oversight of nanomaterials requires mechanisms ensuring transparency, including labeling of consumer products that contain nanomaterials, installing workplace right to know laws and protective measures, and developing a publicly accessible inventory of health and safety information.

The public’s right to know includes the right to be informed, in order to make educated choices. Polls show that the vast majority of the public lacks even basic information about nanotechnology or the presence of nanomaterials in consumer products.[41] In many cases, manufacturers have not publicly released health hazard and testing information concerning their products, or even labeled those products that contain nanomaterials.[42] As a result, the public cannot make informed choices about nanomaterial products. The public’s right to know requires the labeling of all products containing nanomaterial ingredients.[43] Moreover, product labeling facilitates documentation of potential environmental releases, human exposures, and accountability for adverse impacts.

Safety testing data must be available for public scrutiny. In light of the poor record of industry in preventing workplace exposures and environmental releases of hazardous chemicals, effective oversight should include strictures on the use of confidentiality shields for nanomaterials. The provisions of international conventions on public access to information should be respected.[44]

41. DAN KAHAN ET AL., WOODROW WILSON INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR SCHOLARS, PROJECT ON EMERGING NANOTECHNOLOGIES, NANOTECHNOLOGY RISK PERCEPTIONS 2 (2006) (“Consistent with past surveys (Peter D. Hart Research Associates, 2006), the results suggested that Americans are largely uninformed about nanotechnology: 81% of subjects reported having heard either “nothing at all” (53%) or “just a little” (28%) about nanotechnology prior to being surveyed, and only 5% reported having heard “a lot.”).

42. See. e.g., CONSUMER REPORTS, NANOTECHNOLOGY: UNKNOWN PROMISE, UNKNOWN RISK 40 (2007) (Consumer Reports asked an outside lab to test for nanoparticles of zinc oxide and titanium dioxide in eight sunscreens that listed either compound on their label. All eight contained the nanoparticles, yet only one disclosed that use of nanotechnology).

43. See, e.g., Paraco Inc v. Dept of Agriculture, 118 Cal. App. 2d 348, 353-54 (1953) (holding that the public “have a right to know what they are buying”); Fredrick H. Degnan, The Food Label and the Right-to-Know, 52 Food & Drug L.J. 49, 50 (1997) (Pursuant to the ‘consumer’s right to know’, “the public has a basic right to know any fact it deems important about food or a commodity before being forced to make a purchasing decision.”).

44. United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), AARHUS CONVENTION, CONVENTION ON ACCES TO INFORMATION, PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN DECISION-MAKING AND ACCES TO JUSTICE IN ENVIRONMENTAL MATTERS, adopted June 25, 1998.