The European Union does love its regulations. The latest one coming down the pike apparently will be that all cosmetic manufacturers will be required to list any nanoparticles contained in their products marketed in the EU.
TNTLog has quickly reduced this latest EU regulation down to all the silly absurdities it implies:
Sometimes regulations have unintended consequences that even the most conscientious bureaucrat might overlook, but in this case it is blatantly obvious to even the most casual observer that consumers will be led to believe that this label of “nano” serves as some kind of warning, when apparently it isn’t.“Grabbing a bottle at random from my wife’s dresser I find a long list of ingredients such as Methyl Glucech-20, PEG-12 Dimethicone, and Polyquaternium-4, and I can’t really see that putting Hydroxyethyl cellulose dimethyl diallylammonium chloride copolymer (nano), or (C8H16N)x.xCl.(C2H6O2)x (nano) would make much difference compared with the power of the cosmetic company’s marketing machine.”
The EU I am sure is anxious to demonstrate how proactive they are in regulating nanotech, but maybe they might start in a place that is not so prone to misunderstandings, problems and just sheer silliness. Maybe requiring Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) documentation for nanoparticles to protect workers might be a better place to start the whole labeling idea.
Dexter Johnson is a contributing editor at IEEE Spectrum, with a focus on nanotechnology.
