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Can nanotechnology improve public health? : Comments
By Jayashree Vivekanandan, published 15/7/2010Nanotechnology's potential to improve public health will be maximised only with an environment conducive to its development.
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Posted by Gorufus, Thursday, 15 July 2010 10:02:13 AM
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I agree with the previous comment. Nanotechnology is the next arena for companies looking to make a profit as the article makes clear. There is no examination of the potential for nanoparticles to cause a public health disaster.
Currently nanoparticles may be being used in all sorts of products and are unlabelled and untested. They include: paints, fabrics, anti-bacterial coatings, fridge linings, knives, sunscreen, fertilisers. Currently even the Australian government does not know what nanoparticles are out there. The industry is essentially unregulated. For more information go to the excellent work done by Friends of the Earth http://nano.foe.org.au/ Posted by lillian, Thursday, 15 July 2010 12:36:36 PM
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Hail Nanotechnology! – another medical marvels leap, another in a steadily advancing horde since 1800.
The first marvel was plumbing - piping to conduct a steady flow of material through the human body. In and out, it appropriately delivered and dispatched: a clean flow of progress, maximum satisfaction, minimum disaffection; minimizing the number of humans collapsing from their stool. Penicillin carried the banner for another – antibiotics. Then, extermination of Smallpox in its wild state. The Green Revolution in Agriculture: there is nothing like fossil-derived nitrogen for explosive advance; not just for mining - also for fertiliser, enabling new plant varieties to produce to their potential. Wonderful indeed, it has enabled more people to live in comfort and affluence now than existed altogether in 1800. Fantastic! - Vive le revolution! Equality, Fraternity, – had this pair arrived, marching to the tune of La Marseillaies? Sadly, no: Maternity, Paternity, charged to the front. They still dictate the direction of human progress. There are far, far, more now living in the same abject poverty as was rife in 1800; and with the present 6.8 billion of us, there is less prospect of improvement for the disadvantaged than there was for those among the previous one billion. It need not have been so. Penicillin’s champion, Howard Florey; Frank Fenner, who signed Smallpox’s death warrant; Norman Borlaug of Green Revolution fame: all these, and others of similar stature, were devoted to advancing human wellbeing. They, each and all, publicly declared the necessity for balancing the advances they had made: that it was imperative to match the decline in death rates with a decline in fertility rates. The means to do that were at hand, especially with the advent of the contraceptive pill in the 1960s. What a pity that bigotry, greed, and fundamentalism have prevented, and are still preventing, this necessary balance from being achieved. What a pity that we seem to have made no advance – and that nanotechnology is being called to the rescue for one half of humanity’s basic problem in the absence of equal effort to balance the other half Posted by colinsett, Thursday, 15 July 2010 3:17:47 PM
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It looks like the greens are trying to whip up another scare campaign along the lines "its new, we don't know much about it, therefore it must be bad." Similar to the campaign against GM
Can anyone show me where anyone has suffered from eating GM? Posted by Shadow Minister, Friday, 16 July 2010 5:48:17 AM
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is, as usual, related to nutrition, clean water and sewerage systems, and infectious disease control.You mention lung cancer drugs but surely the money would be better spent on smoking prevention?