12 janvier 2010 | EN | 中文 SEM micrograph of carbon nanotube
bundles (false colour added) [NEW DELHI] Developing countries
have embarked on a nanotechnology spree in the absence of health
and safety guidelines, experts have cautioned. Countries
including China, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam are
intensively seeking to commercialise nanotechnology. But unlike
the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United
States — which have taken public concerns on board and developed
preliminary guidance documents on the use of the technology —
developing countries are not engaging in public discourse, said
experts at a workshop on nanotechnology governance and
regulation held in Delhi, India, last week (8 January). The
workshop, supported by Canada's International Development
Research Centre (IDRC), focused on India but participants said
that the situation was similar in most developing countries
engaged in nanotechnology research. In the absence of regulation
"it is a free for all", said Alok Dhawan, a