Small is beautiful - except when it's nanotechnology?

Mike Childs

16 November 2010

EF Schumacher's 1973 classic book 'Small is Beautiful' is recognised as a must read for any aspiring environmentalists. It is a broadside against 'big is better' and 'growth is good'. Nanotechnology is incredibly small. A nanometer is a billionth of a metre (atomic  and molecular scale). But a new report published today by Friends of the Earth in the United States and Australia reveals it is not necessary beautiful.

There are already over 1000 nanotechnology products on sale, such as: easy to clean kitchen surfaces, wrinkle-free clothes, anti-odour socks, cleaning products, stronger golf clubs, electronics, anti-aging cream, health supplements, etc, etc. The list goes on.  Whilst the societal value of odour -free socks and anti-aging cream could be a hot topic of debate over the dinner table, there are undoubtedly some beneficial uses that are beyond dispute, such as cancer drugs, improved energy storage, and more effective renewable energy systems. 

But as the Friends of the Earth report reveals, the production and use of nanotechnology is not risk free, not always beneficial  and the hype surrounding nanotechnology is not necessary matched in practice. For example:

• A team of United States researchers has concluded that single walled carbon nanotubes, used in electronics, may be "one of the most energy intensive materials known to humankind".
• Governments in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Japan and Saudi Arabia are using public funds to develop nanotechnology to find and extract more oil and gas.
• Manufacturing carbon nanofibers, which can be used in nano-scale electric motors, requires 13 to 50 times the energy required to manufacture smelting aluminium, and 95-360 times the energy to make steel, on an equal mass basis.
• Strengthening windmill blades with carbon nanofibers would make the blades lighter but, because of the energy required to manufacture the nanoblades, early life cycle analysis shows that it could still be more energy efficient to use conventional windmill blades.
• 99.9 percent of materials used in manufacturing nano-components for computers become waste products.
• Early research shows that some forms of nanotubes can cause mesothelioma, the deadly cancer associated with asbestos exposure.

Like many new technologies it is important not to dismiss the potential beneficial uses.  Friends of the Earth does not object to using public funds to develop nanotechnology, as long as it doesn't come at the cost of making improvements to existing proven technologies. And we do think that this new technology needs greater regulation to protect public health.