(536e) Back from the Future: What Nanotechnology Risk Analysis Can Teach Us about Process Safety Today

Nanotechnology. Even today, nearly two decades since the onset of a rapid acceleration in nanotechnology research and development, it still has a futuristic aura about it. Nanotechnology may evoke sweet dreams of tiny machines that vanquish disease-causing invaders in our bloodstream, or horrific nightmares of nanobots that disassemble our flesh to feed their voracious self-replication. In reality, and more prosaically, nanotechnology is understood to be the intentional manipulation of matter to exploit novel phenomena that emerge when one or more dimensions of the object are between about 1-100 nanometers.

At first blush, safety professionals employed in mature industries like the oil and gas and petrochemical sectors would seem to have little in common with those working in emerging technology areas such as nanotechnology. The former are dealing with conventional equipment, materials, and processes whose hazards are generally well understood, if not always perfectly managed. This is not necessarily the case for nanotechnology production, where many fundamental questions about risk remain unanswered. And the points of intersection may grow as nanotechnology continues to penetrate the materials marketplace in many sectors. Nanotechnology risk researchers have had to both learn from past research linking particulate matter to public health outcomes and anticipate a future in which conventional materials and their means of production are radically different. This presentation makes the case that the societal approach to understanding and managing potential risks from nanotechnology can be instructive for those working in process safety. Lessons learned from the US Chemical Safety Board's first 20 years will be interwoven throughout.