ETC Group
News Release
Wednesday, 24 January 2007
www.etcgroup.org
Winners of Nano-Hazard Symbol Contest Announced at World Social Forum, Nairobi, Kenya
An estimated 30,000 people gathered at the World Social Forum in Nairobi this week where participants had a chance to vote for their favorite Nano-Hazard Symbol – a design that warns of the presence of engineered nanomaterials (1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter).
The winners of the international graphic design competition were announced today. The winning designs were submitted by: Dimitris Deligiannis (Greece), Shirley Gibson (Scotland), and Kypros Kyprianou (England).
“Tiny tech is no small matter – there was intense competition to design a nano-hazard symbol, and enormous interest in Nairobi,†said Pat Mooney of ETC Group. “We ended up with three winners who were virtually tied for first place,†explained Mooney.
The competition netted 482 unique designs from 24 countries. An independent panel of judges selected 16 finalists that appeared on the ballot in Nairobi.
The winning designs will be submitted to international standard-setting bodies responsible for hazard characterisation and could be used as a label on product-packaging or workroom walls. Because of their extremely small size and large surface area, nano-scale particles may be more reactive and more toxic than larger particles of the same substance. Even though hundreds of products containing engineered nanoparticles are on the market, the toxicology of nanoparticles is largely unknown.
(More information on the competition, along with the list of judges, can be found here: http://www.etcgroup.org/nanohazard)
Read comments by one of the judges, Alexis Vlandas, about why he thinks the nanohazard symbol is important, and how he chose finalists.
“Congratulations to the winners, and to the hundreds of people from all over the globe who participated. We also want to thank our panel of judges, who had the challenging task of narrowing the field to 16 finalists,†added Kathy Jo Wetter of ETC Group.
All 482 design submissions can be viewed here.
ETC contact information:
Pat Mooney and Kathy Jo Wetter of ETC Group are attending the World Social Forum. We have a booth at the WSF venue and / or can be reached by email:
Pat Mooney: etc@etcgroup.org
Kathy Jo Wetter: kjo@etcgroup.org
Hope Shand (US) hope@etcgroup.org tel: 919 960-5767
Silvia Ribeiro (Mexico) silvia@etcgroup.org tel: +52 5555 6326 64
