Twenty-first Century Novel: Regulating Nanotechnologies

The Twenty-Seventh Report of the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) considers controls over novel materials in the environment, focusing largely though not exclusively on nanomaterials. The Report concludes that notwithstanding the capacity of existing regulations to address risks posed by nanomaterials, at present they are poorly adapted to do so. This article reviews the scope of existing regulations and looks at how these might be modified in the light of RCEP proposals. It identifies areas of imprecision in those proposals which may need to be addressed in order to produce a cohesive regulatory structure.