© Jim Thomas/ETC GroupIan Illuminato of Friends of the Earth says consumers deserve a say in nanotech regulation.
Nanotechnology was supposed to revolutionize the world, making us healthier and producing cleaner energy. But it's starting to look more like a nightmare.
Nanomaterials - tiny particles as little as 1/100,000 the width of a human hair - have quietly been used since the 1990s in hundreds of everyday products, everything from food to baby bottles, pills, beer cans, computer keyboards, skin creams, shampoo, and clothes.
But after years of virtually unregulated use, scientists are now starting to say the most commonly used nanoproducts could be harming our health and the environment.
One of the most widespread nanoproducts is titanium dioxide. More than 5,000 tonnes of it are produced worldwide each year for use in food, toothpaste, cosmetics, paint, and paper (as a coloring agent), in medication and vitamin capsules (as a nonmedicinal filler), and in most sunscreens (for its anti-UV properties).
Comment: What additional evidence is needed?? Humans have been eating a Paleolithic diet for most of our history and it was only with the advent of agriculture that the diseases of civilization began to plague mankind. See: Agriculture: The Worst Mistake In The History Of The Human Race
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