On Wednesday, a team of experts from the National Research Council complained about the lack of researches made by the Government in finding environmental and health hazards related to nanomaterials engineering.

Nanomaterials are used in several areas of the industrial and consumer products, like adhesives, shampoo and toothpaste. The fact that nanomaterials are engineered in a scale of 10,000 times lower than a human hair is the basis of nanotechnology advancement. Still, there are also voices that claim that there are also health risks that haven’t been assessed yet, as it is a recent study in Scotland, which revealed that nanotubes pose health risks similar to asbestos.

The expert panel investigated the researches of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) regarding risks related to nanomaterials development. The NNI is a federal program which coordinates research and development in nanotechnology. The panel acidly criticized the initiative as having neither goals nor a vision. Moreover, the report also pointed out that there is no “mechanisms to review and evaluate funded research and assess whether progress has been achieved.” The panel suggested that the Environmental Protection Agency should collaborate with the National Academy in order to develop and study a research strategy.

The vice chairman of the panel, Martin Philbert, toxicologist at the University of Michigan, stressed that further testing the environmental impact of nanomaterial is imperative because at the moment there are no ways know “how much of this material is in the environment and what form it is.”

The expert panel includes members like the American Chemistry Council and the Environmental Defense Found.