Nano scale
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
One of many cartoons available on this site for you to print, publish and share as you like.
Submitted by ETC Staff on
One of many cartoons available on this site for you to print, publish and share as you like.
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Submitted by ETC Group on
Submitted by ETC Staff on
Nano-scale technology is a suite of techniques used to manipulate matter at the scale of atoms and molecules. “Nano” is a measurement – not an object. Unlike “biotechnology,” where you know that bios (life) is being manipulated, “nanotechnology” speaks solely to scale. A “nanometre” (nm) equals one billionth of a metre. One human hair is about 80,000 nanometres thick. It takes ten atoms of hydrogen side-by-side to equal one nanometre. A DNA molecule is about 2.5 nm wide. A red blood cell is vast in comparison: about 5,000 nm in diameter. Everything on the nano-scale is invisible to the unaided eye and even to all but the most powerful microscopes.
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Geneva -- “The actions on nanotechnology that were agreed upon today do not reflect the urgency of the issue. The delegates were made aware that nanomaterials are an intergenerational risk, with nanoparticles being passed from mother to child via maternal blood. Yet these risks appear to have been ignored in the response by ICCM2," said Dr. Mariann Lloyd-Smith, IPEN CoChair.
“We are a long way from the statement that was adopted less than a year ago at the meeting organized by the International Forum on Chemical Safety in Dakar,” said Diana Bronson from ETC Group. “There, governments, industry, trade unions and non-governmental organizations had agreed that the precautionary principle needed to be applied, that countries should have the right to say no to nanotechnology and that special measures need to be taken to protect vulnerable groups. We got none of that in Geneva.”
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