The Australian Government has issued its long awaited response to the recommendations of the 2005-06 Senate Inquiry into workplace exposure to toxic dust and nanoparticles. Disappointingly, the Government ignored 2 of the 3 key recommendations. These include recommendations to take practical action to close the legal loopholes that leave commercial use of many nanomaterials effectively unregulated, and to support widespread public consultation on what measures are necessary to safely manage the health risks of occupational exposure to nanomaterials.

For the first time, food companies will have to declare to Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) when their products contain nanotechnology ingredients, additives, food processing aids or contaminants that could pose new toxicity risks, if the regulator's proposed new standards are approved. But Friends of the Earth Australia is concerned that the new standards will neither keep unsafe nano ingredients out of foods, nor require labelling to give people a choice about whether or not to eat nanofoods.

Center for American Progress and Science Progress Senior Fellow Rick Weiss explains why the US FDA's failure to act on nanofoods puts public health at risk. The original article "Nanoparticles get nanoregulation" is found at: http://www.scienceprogress.org/2008/09/nanoparticles-get-nanoregulation/

Seventy governments, 12 intergovernmental organisations, and 39 non governmental organisations participating in Forum VI of the Intergovernmental Forum on Chemical Safety (IFCS) in Dakar, Senegal last week adopted a statement on nanotechnology and manufactured nanomaterials that explicitly backed use of the precautionary principle.

Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research has released the Review of Australia's National Innovation System. Far from being a turning point for the future of innovation in Australia, as he has claimed it to be, it is more of the same old fare. While the report claims to support thinking outside the square and highlights the need for researchers, businesses, workers and governments to come together to play their part in Australia's innovation system, the recommendations do not reflect this desire.

Carbon nanotubes – thin, hollow cylinders made of carbon atoms – look very much like asbestos. In 2004, the United Kingdom's Royal Society and risk specialists at the world's second largest reinsurance agent Swiss Re warned that once in our lungs, nanotubes may also behave like asbestos. Since then, a series of experiments have demonstrated that these warnings were well-founded. Now FoEA has released an overview of the key studies investigating the potential for carbon nanotubes to cause asbestos-like harm.

Queensland Conservation Council (QCC) and Friends of the Earth (FoE) today warned that tomorrow's Science in Parliament briefing on nanotechnology, organised by Queensland's Chief Scientist, shows unacceptable pro-industry bias and ignores nanotechnology's serious new risks. We are particularly concerned that Queensland MPs to whom the event is targetted will not hear the full story on nanotechnology. Our joint media release is below.

A new report has found huge gaps in the ability of Australia's laws to deal with the health and environment risks introduced by nanotechnology(download below). These truck-sized holes in our regulation of the science of the small leave nanomaterials used in hundreds of Australian products effectively unregulated. For a sample of products whose manufacturers claim nanomaterial ingredients (download a list below). For media coverage of the report click here.

Nanotechwire.com news service warns that the US "EPA Nanotechnology Voluntary Program Risks Becoming a 'Black Hole'". The service reports that: "Six months after launching its voluntary reporting program for nanomaterial producers, EPA has made virtually no information public about the limited number of submissions it has received. As a result, the public can have little confidence that the program is providing the information the Agency will need to protect citizens, consumers, workers and the environment from the potential risks of nanotechnology, according to Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)".