Nanotechnology

Five Questions with Dr. John Howard, Director of NIOSH: Research at NIOSH on the Occupational Safety and Health Applications and Implications of Nanotechnology

2. What does NIOSH bring to the table in terms of skills and expertise?

The answer to that question is "a lot."  NIOSH has a history of research in particle physics and particle toxicity.  There's a range of size of particles from large particles, through ultrafine particles to nanoscale particles.  NIOSH's welding fume research and its beryllium particle research makes it uniquely suited to carry on nanoscale particle research.

NIOSH has laboratories and researchers who are working in these particle scale areas, across various industry sectors, to determine answers to questions regarding the association of particle size, particle surface area and particle concentration with toxicity. A lot of work has already been done in these areas and we will post ongoing news about  those research findings on our website at http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/updates/upd-07-26-05.html .

3. What are the challenges for NIOSH?

The big challenge is for us to get quick and accurate answers to the critical issues confronting the occupational health and safety implications of nanotechnology.  

For example, we need to quantitatively assess workers' potential exposures to nanomaterials in the workplace, including inhalation and dermal exposure; we need to determine how exposures differ by work task or process; we need to determine what happens when nanomaterials enter the body: do they translocate from the lung to other organs or systems of the body?  What are adverse health effects, if any, of nanomaterials.  Also, a lot of our industrial hygiene sampling strategies are based on the mass of a particle.  Since nanoparticles have little mass, a big issue is how do we measure them in a work environment? 

4. What are the parameters of the program?

The first major parameter is the number of people we have actively working on this program, some 30-50 people across 10 divisions, including an intramural steering committee from within NIOSH.   We also have many partnerships with other federal government research agencies and non-governmental organizations. 

The next big parameter is that we're including both applications and implications in our research.  The application side includes items like nanosensors that might be used either inside or outside respirators to detect adverse conditions.  Also, we're looking to see if respirator filters or general industrial filters can be improved by nanotechnology application.    

Another parameter is the amount of money we're investing into the program. We began with a NIOSH investment of  nearly $4 million dollars.  We're also involving the extramural community.  In 2004, we published a Request for Applications from the extramural research community doing nano research, together with the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), for $7 million dollars.  Our hope is to stimulate the external research community to join with NIOSH in studying the occupational safety and health applications and implications of nanotechnology. 

The final parameter is where we're going in the future.  We want a robust program that answers all of the questions about occupational safety and health implications of nanotechnology, and that vigorously investigates promising of applications of nanotechnology for improving occupational safety and health.  We hope that our nanotechnology intramural and extramural research program continues to mature and grow as nanotechnology continues to grow

5. What products are expected, near- and longer term?

The first product that we have put on the website is just a general position statement about where we're going in this field.  We have a set of Frequently Asked Questions (and answers), and we're putting our detailed strategic plan up on our website. We're also developing an electronic best practices called "Approaches for Safe Nanotechnology," which we hope all of our stakeholders will comment on and engage with us in improving through time. Additionally, we're sponsoring our 2 ^nd international conference in occupational safety and health implications of nanotechnology at the University of Minnesota (External Link http://www.nano.umn.edu/ ) during the first week of October 2005 and the first nano-toxicology symposium (External Link h ttp://www.pitt.edu/~nanotox/index.htm) at the Wyndham Miami Beach Hotel in January 2006. 

Final Note:

I would just like to add that we can't do any of this except through partnerships.  So I would invite any public or private sector entity, association, group or individual, who's interested in applications and implications of nanotechnology for occupational safety and health to contact me, or contact our r2p coordinator, DeLon Hull (513-533-8668 or dhull@cdc.gov) and to join us in finding the answers we need to keep nanotechnology workers safety and healthy.  Thank you.