San Francisco Chronicle

05/17/06

Numerous products such as sunscreens and cosmetics contain potentially hazardous nanoparticles but lack adequate warning labels of their possible health effects, two activist groups charged Tuesday. The groups -- Friends of the Earth and International Center for Technology Assessment -- formally petitioned the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, demanding that the agency better monitor and regulate products containing nanoparticles -- and said they would sue if the agency does nothing. Their announcement coincided with the release of a report by the groups that highlighted the number of personal care products with nanoingredients, material typically 100 nanometers wide -- far smaller than a red blood cell -- or smaller. Tuesday's filing was 'the first-ever legal challenge on the potential human health and environmental risks of nanotechnology and nanomaterials,' the groups claimed in a statement...

http://tinyurl.com/n8jtn


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp