Jul 8 – An EPA for the 21st century

An article in the Boston Globe by William D. Ruckelshaus, who served as the EPA’s first administrator from 1970-1973 and again from 1983-1985 and J. Clarence Davies a senior adviser at the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies and Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future:

It is time for the EPA to step into the breach and develop a research and regulatory framework for nanotechnology that helps us achieve its promise while avoiding or greatly minimizing any possible dangers. This won’t be easy…

Second, at the same time that it starts its voluntary program, the agency should revise the regulations under the Toxic Substances Control Act to explicitly cover nanomaterials. It should also ask Congress to amend the act to allow the EPA to get the health and safety information it needs to evaluate new materials.

This is years away from being implemented (if at all), but we thought you might be interested in hearing about the idea.