Prompted Post #7: Contemplating Controversy

Possibly the biggest controversy in the food safety industry in years is the debate on Nanotechnology, specifically related to micro packaging. Texas A&M University engineering team created a thin-coating polymer with food preservation qualities similar to that of glass. The head of the engineering team, Jaime Grunlan, says that it could preserve a carbonated drink's fizz better than anything yet. This molecular material is 70% clay particles and 30% water - so it's basically dirt. This makes the material more eco-friendly than the most recyclable material, plastics, and thousands of times thinner than a single strand of hair. In addition to having the best gas barriers and shelf life, "dirt", is food contact approved....as weird as that may sound. (Fletcher)

So I'm sure you're all wondering, if this material is extremely cheap, sustainable, and effective, how could there possible be a debate on it? The answer to that is what I like to call fear of the unknown. 

To be more clear, the debate is solely because of the danger of public backlash. Many in the food industry "fear the wrath of the consumer, and it's become worse over the last three or four years" says the head of The Department of Food Science at Pennsylvania State University, John Floros. The reason for fearing wrath of consumers is solely because of the consumers' fear of the unknown. Floros says that companies and consumers would work to balance the risks and benefits, but consumers want no risks whatsoever. (Fletcher)

The article that opened the doors to my research about this debate failed to mention what consumers and several companies are so afraid of. What potential hazards are there? The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology was able to give me a means of the top dangers of nanotechnology:

NANOTECH

• Economic disruption from an abundance of cheap products
• Economic oppression from artificially inflated prices
• Personal risk from criminal or terrorist use
• Personal or social risk from abusive restrictions
• Social disruption from new products/lifestyles
• Health risks from unregulated products
• Black market in nanotechnology (increasing other risks)
• Competing nanotechnology programs (increasing other risks)

Below the list was a follow up that I found extremely interesting and helpful: "Some of the dangers described here are existential risks, that is, they may threaten the continued existence of humankind. Others could produce significant disruption but not cause our extinction. A combination of several risks could exacerbate the seriousness of each; any solution must take into account its effect on other risks." ("Nanotechnology: Dangers of...")

With the knowledge I have on this subject, I can solely conclude that the complexity of this debate is because nanotechnology's risks are in no way ordinary and formed because this manufacturing technique is still so foreign to the public. Although major corporations are turning down "clay/dirt", they are still following the advancements in nanotechnology. In the 2012 fiscal year alone, the federal government invested $123.5 million in environmental, health, and safety dimensions of nanotechnology to attempt to push all these potential dangers out of the picture. (Fletcher)

Sources Cited

Fletcher, Jan. "Micro Packaging Could Be the Future." QSR Magazine. QSR Magazine, Aug. 2011. Web. Mar. 2016

"Nanotechnology: Dangers of Molecular Manufacturing." Nanotechnology: Dangers of Molecular Manufacturing. WorldCare. Web. March. 2016.