The US National Nanotechnology Initiative has just released its 2009 budget projections, and a new line item, or as its termed in the summary, â¿¿Program Component Areaâ¿¿, that addresses Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) has been added.

Last yearâ¿¿s 2008 budget summary provided only a Program Component Area entitled â¿¿Societal Dimensionsâ¿¿.

But in the breakdown of the new 2009 budget, the EHS program has been retroactively plugged in for 2007 and 2008, representing $48.3 and $58.6 million, respectively for each year. But this year the EHS program has received an increase over 30% from last year to the tune $76.4 million.

These figures compare somewhat favorably to European Commission spending on health issues related to nanoparticles, which amounted to ⿬28 million between 1998 to 2006. It⿿s not exactly clear how much the EC will dedicate to EHS studies for nanotechnology under the new FP7 Programme, but a rundown of the research projects into nanosafety within Europe can be found here.

The US NNI while being one of the most, if not the most, transparent government nanotechnology funding organizations in the world has come under criticism for its perceived failure to adequately address the nanotechnology hazard question.

Despite this increased funding for EHS research, the criticism will likely not go away as long as there is a vested interested in some NGOs to keep the pressure on to ensure their own necessity to the process as this blog has noted before.

If the NNI really wants to silence the critics, they might allocate some of their budget to hiring these critics as part-time consultants because they have certainly already handled the funding aspect.