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Renn, Ortwin; Grobe, Antje --- "Risk Governance in the Field of Nanotechnologies: Core Challenges of an Integrative Approach" [2010] ELECD 730; in Hodge, A. Graeme; Bowman, M. Diana; Maynard, D. Andrew (eds), "International Handbook on Regulating Nanotechnologies" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: International Handbook on Regulating Nanotechnologies

Editor(s): Hodge, A. Graeme; Bowman, M. Diana; Maynard, D. Andrew

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446731

Section: Chapter 22

Section Title: Risk Governance in the Field of Nanotechnologies: Core Challenges of an Integrative Approach

Author(s): Renn, Ortwin; Grobe, Antje

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

22 Risk governance in the field of
nanotechnologies: core challenges of an
integrative approach
Ortwin Renn and Antje Grobe


22.1 INTRODUCTION

On the way towards sustainable and safe innovations in the field of nano-
technologies, society is faced with severe challenges posed by increased
complexity, uncertainty and ambiguity that will accompany the diffusion
of these new technologies onto the market. These typical side effects of
today's innovation processes manifest themselves, for example, in the
large number and variety of applications in different industrial sectors
with its required safety data ­ documented case-by-case on a set of
different criteria for the risk assessment and risk management proce-
dures (Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health
Risks (SCENIHR), 2009; National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH), 2009; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), 2009). This adds complexity to the issue. Other
problems become visible in the still unresolved questions of a shared and
pragmatic definition of nanotechnologies and nanomaterials among the
various stakeholders and the related problems of how to apply specific risk
assessment and risk management requirements without narrow thresholds
(European Parliament, 2009a, 2009b). This increases the degree of uncer-
tainty with respect to the potential impacts of nanotechnology applica-
tions. Safety data and the application of risk assessment are both closely
connected to the different scientific heuristics which influence the process
of how risk-related information is generated and determine the process of
judgement ­ sometimes even leading to contradictory results based upon
the ...