Tsang Michael P, Kikuchi-Uehara Emi, Sonnemann Guido W, Aymonier Cyril, Hirao Masahiko
Univ. Bordeaux, ISM, UMR 5255, F-33400 Talence, France.
CNRS, Univ. Bordeaux, ISM, UMR 5255, F-33400 Talence, France.
Nat Nanotechnol. 2017 Aug 4;12(8):734-739. doi: 10.1038/nnano.2017.132.
It has been some 15 years since the topics of sustainability and nanotechnologies first appeared together in the scientific literature and became a focus of organizations' research and policy developments. On the one hand, this focus is directed towards approaches and tools for risk assessment and management and on the other hand towards life-cycle thinking and assessment. Comparable to their application for regular chemicals, each tool is seen to serve separate objectives as it relates to evaluating nanotechnologies' safety or resource efficiency, respectively. While nanomaterials may provide resource efficient production and consumption, this must balance any potential hazards they pose across their life-cycles. This Perspective advocates for integrating these two tools at the methodological level for achieving this objective, and it explains what advantages and challenges this offers decision-makers while highlighting what research is needed to further enhance integration.
自可持续性和纳米技术的主题首次同时出现在科学文献中，并成为各组织研究和政策发展的焦点以来，已经过去了大约15年。一方面，这种关注指向风险评估和管理的方法与工具，另一方面指向生命周期思维和评估。与它们在常规化学品中的应用类似，每种工具在评估纳米技术的安全性或资源效率方面都被视为服务于不同的目标。虽然纳米材料可能提供资源高效的生产和消费，但这必须平衡它们在整个生命周期中可能带来的任何潜在危害。本观点主张在方法层面整合这两种工具以实现这一目标，并解释了这为决策者带来了哪些优势和挑战，同时强调了为进一步加强整合还需要哪些研究。
