The social context of nanotechnology and regulating its uncertainty: A nanotechnologist approach

With an increasing number of consumer's products containing nanomaterials (NMs), Nanotechnology is already a reality on the market despite it may only be the emerging part of an iceberg. The potential exponential increase of nanotechnology uses is starting to alert major public bodies due to the uncertainty inherent of every emerging technology. According to the number of publications on safety/toxicity of NMs, major concern seems to be focused on NMs that may be released as free nano-objects. From a nanotechnologist point of view, major identified aspects on inorganic nano-objects are: i) Corrosion of metallic nano-objects, ii) Aggregation to sizes that trigger immune exacerbation, iii) Presence of toxic bystanders, iv) Biological membrane/barrier perturbation, v) Protein association & protein alteration. While the description of phenomena occurring at the nano-scale has not been classified yet, added to the contradictory studies on "unknown" samples, regulatory agencies have no clear idea on what should be considered "nano" or which NMs might pose a threat for health, safety or the environment. In addition to provide full and accessible information on new nano-product, it would seem advisable to plan research and innovation in a responsible and precautionary manner in order to be pro-active towards (responsive) NMs regulation.