| Abstract |
Nanotechnology is widely portrayed as a critical driver of future economic growth and as a means to solving some of humanity's most vexing challenges. Because of its incredibly broad range of prospective uses, nanotechnology has the potential to impact virtually every industry, from aerospace and energy to healthcare and agriculture. The Woodrow Wilson and nanowerk.com inventories of nanotechnology-based products currently list 350-1,300 consumer products, produced by 580-2,300 companies located in an estimated 32 countries. While nanotechnology has the potential to create entirely new industries and products, there are uncertainties surrounding the impact of these novel materials on workers and consumers who are exposed in different scenarios. In successive governmental and academic reviews, the need to understand the hazards of nanomaterials has been emphasized, and a large number of scientific publications have reported the results of investigations of the potential toxicity of nanomaterials in many different systems, with a range of outcomes. The purpose of this task order was to provide a preliminary market summary based on available literature and web sites. RTI International reviewed existing information and summarized it for NIOSH. Among the specific tasks in this order, RTI aimed to identify the commercial manufacturers and distributors of commonly used engineered nanomaterials in the United States. In this analyses, specific information (i.e. location by U.S. state or foreign country, CEO contact information, and number of workers) on the engineered nanomaterials identified as immediate NIOSH interest was included. |
