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Companies in Wisconsin and around the world are developing new ways to manufacture teeny, tiny structures measured in atoms and molecules that are finding their way into consumer products ranging from hockey sticks to sunscreen. Are there risks?  The state legislature’s special committee on nanotechnology is attempting to understand the highly technical and fast-advancing field and determine what regulatory role, if any, the state should play.

The heads of government regulators around the country are spinning, including those at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, about how to oversee nanotech. A few local officials, including city leaders in Cambridge, Mass., and Berkeley, Calif., have taken early stabs at regulating the technology. In Berkeley, a techie hotspot, companies using nanotech are required to disclose to the city what materials they’re using and what they’re doing with them.

carbon nanotubes

States like Wisconsin are beginning to ponder the effects of nanotech in the vacuum left by federal regulators, who are finding that traditional environmental protection laws – the clean air and water acts – are poor fits because they regulate substances based on their chemical makeup, be they PCBs, mercury or other harmful chemicals. But the bright minds toiling in nanotech labs are crafting structures out of more benign materials such as carbon. The danger lies in what the new structures, microscopic nanotubes or spherical “buckyballs,” could do if inhaled or ingested by humans.

Nobody really knows. A 2008 study by researchers at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland injected mice with relatively long strands of carbon nanotubes. The reaction of the mouse cells resembled exposure to asbestos fibers, used commonly as fireproofing for buildings until they were linked to Mesothelioma, a deadly form of cancer. More research is on the way. In recent years, the National Nanotechnology Initiative, which is expected to receive about $1.8 billion this year from Congress, has broadened its funding of research into new nanotech to also include studying its health effects.

“We don’t know yet what the long-term effects on humans could be. The research’s just not there,” says State Rep. Terese Berceau (D-Madison), who serves on the special nanotech committee and has been the legislature’s most vocal member on the issue. She first proposed creating a state registry in 2007 requiring companies to report on their nanotech activities. The committee, composed of nanotech experts and legislators, is discussing a registry, but Berceau says support for one is limited.

terese berceau

One problem facing governments at all levels is insufficient information on the industry. “Very little is known about the use of nanotechnology in industry, and relevant oversight remains in its infancy,” says a 2009 commentary in the journal Nature. “Even basic information on what nanomaterials are being produced, in what quantities and how they are being handled and used remains largely undocumented.” A voluntary nanotech registry run by the EPA has gotten little response, a fate suffered by similar programs in Europe.

The Wisconsin Technology Council, a group representing tech businesses in the state, has opposed the creation of a mandatory nanotech registry in Wisconsin, arguing it would be time-consuming for existing companies and a deterrent to new ones. “We think it’s a pretty unworkable proposal either at the local or state level,” says President Tom Still. “The state ought to be following what’s happening at the federal level. We don’t want to have a competitive disadvantage in what’s an emerging industry.”

It’s sprouting up quickly in Wisconsin, although the state is hardly a national center for nanotech. Oshkosh Nanotechnology, formed in 2008, is developing nanomaterials that could be added to advanced batteries (such as those used for cell phones or hybrid cars) to greatly expand their capacity. Earlier this year, researchers at UW-Milwaukee received a $1.2 million grant to develop self-healing metals for the U.S. Army using nanotech. And Graphene Solutions in Platteville is already selling nanomaterials through an online store – $500 buys you 250 milligrams of “nanographene powder.” A “graphene” is a sheet of carbon only one atom thick useful in electronics nanotech.

tom still

The future applications of nanotech are far-reaching. Its advances could be used to fight cancer, build ultra-lightweight cars or faster computers. Some nanomaterials are incredibly strong yet flexible and could lead to new forms of body armor. Researchers could even create tiny atom-sized machines one day. “I want to build a billion tiny factories, models of each other, which are manufacturing simultaneously, drilling holes, stamping parts and so on,” mused Nobel Prize winning physicist Richard Feynman in 1959, back when scientists were first envisioning a nanotech future.

“Lots of things are happening and nobody wants to see that stop,” Berceau says. She suggests creating a clearinghouse of information about worker safety and other issues for new nanotech companies. “We would be able to say to any company, we’re going to help you do things the right way,” she says.

The legislature’s committee has so far resisted creating a registry, which might have to be open to the public, a troubling prospect for competing companies, but it hasn’t thrown out the prospect of state involvement altogether, Berceau adds. “The majority of the committee believes there should be some kind of connection between business and public safety.”

Berceau may still introduce legislation to create a registry in the coming legislative session whether the committee recommends it or not, although the bill would be less likely to pass if the committee doesn’t endorse such a proposal, as she concedes.

A letter to the committee from Dietram Scheufele, a professor of life sciences communications at UW-Madison who’s currently a visiting fellow at Harvard University, cautions Wisconsin that “taking a unilateral approach to local regulation will likely have a chilling effect on the climate of innovation surrounding nanotechnology in Wisconsin.” He reassures the committee that “funding for additional research and development of regulations is well underway at the federal level.”

Meanwhile, nanotech is finding its way into stretchy socks, protective sunscreen and even supremely durable hockey sticks. But customers probably won’t know this. Companies that once touted “nanotechnology” on packaging aren’t doing so anymore since the specter of health risks arose.

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