Labeling the Future

Nanotubes have slipped into my sunscreen with the stealth of a cloned kitten. The cheese I just ate, may have been a time-proven design by Mother Nature, or the newest version developed by a single father in Cleveland.

The FDA and the EFSA have reported that meat and milk from cloned cows, pigs and goats are just as safe as food from conventionally bred animals. I could not find a report from any government agency on the safety of nano-based products. Have I eaten a byproduct of a cloned animal or applied nanoparticles to my skin? I wish I knew.

Question: Why are consumer products that use nano or bio technologies not clearly labeled?

Here are some possible reasons

• If a product is safe, then there is no reason for warnings to be on the label.
• Sellers fear slower sales until a new technology is publicly accepted and proven safe.
• Technologies have advanced faster than regulations can keep up.
• Labeling products in such a way creates unnecessary fear.
• The line between organic/non-organic, nano or not, gets fuzzy. e.g. the natural offspring of a cloned cow.
• Profit is put before public safety.
• The public is unknowingly being used to test new technology.
• We can trust industry and government to keep consumer products safe.

-FFA