Nanotechnology and Occupational Health and Safety Conference
Center for Nanotechnology in Society
Universityof California, Santa Barbara
November 2007
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Friday, November 16, 2007
Corwin Pavilion
8:30 – 9:00 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks
Richard Appelbaum, CNS-UCSB, Conference Organizer
Richard Freeman, Harvard University Labor and Worklife Program
Barbara Herr Harthorn, Director, CNS-UCSB
Michael Witherell, Vice Chancellor of Research, UCSB
9:00 – 10:40 a.m.
Session 1: What is Nanotechnology and What Are the Workplace Risks?
Moderator:
Barbara Herr Harthorn, Director, UCSB Center for Nanotechnology in Society; Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Anthropology, UC Santa Barbara
Presenters:
Brad Chmelka, Professor of Chemical Engineering, UC Santa Barbara. “What is Nanotechnology, and Why Does It Matter?”
John Froines, Director, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and Professor of Environmental Health and Safety, UCLA. “Nanotechnology – How to Define Risks and Control Them”
Paul Schulte, Coordinator, NIOSH Nanotechnology Research Center (NTRC) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Director, NIOSH Education and Information Division (EID). “Potential Workplace Hazards of Nanotechnology.”
Commentators:
John Monica, Partner, Porter Wright Morris & Arthur LLP; Defends national and international products liability claims for Fortune 500 companies
David Weil, Professor of Economics, Boston University and Co-Director, Transparency Policy Project at Harvard University Kennedy School of Government
Jackie Nowell, Director, Occupational Health and Safety Office, United Food and Commercial Workers
10:40 – 10:50 a.m.
Morning Break
10:50 a.m. – 12:40 p.m.
Session 2: Present and Future Nanoparticle Risk Measurement
Moderator:
John Froines, Professor of Environmental Health and Safety; Director, UCLA Centers for Occupational and Environmental Health, Southern California Particle Center, and Fogarty Program in Occupational and Environmental Health
Presenters:
Andre Nel, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of NanoMedicine, UCLA; Director, Cellular Immunology Activation Laboratory in the Johnson Cancer Center and the Laboratory for Nanosafety Research and Testing in the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), UCLA. “Predictive Toxicological Paradigms for the Assessment of Nanoparticle Toxicity.”
Vince Castranova, Chief of Pathology and Physiology Research Branch, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. “Critical Toxicity Parameters for Nanoparticles vs. Conventional Particles”
Patricia Holden, Professor of Environmental Microbiology, Donald Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, UC Santa Barbara; Lead PI, ICON-CNS Study of Nanotechnology in the Workplace. “Environmental Considerations in Nanomaterials Health and Safety”
Lynne Zucker, Director of the Center for International Science, Technology, and Cultural Policy and Professor of Sociology, UCLA; Research associate, National Bureau of Economic Research; Michael Darby, Professor of Policy and Director of the John M. Olin Center for Policy, UCLA; Ali Emre Uyar, Postdoctoral Researcher, UCLA. “Commercial Adoption of Nano-Titanium Dioxide Production”
Commentator:
Frank Mirer, Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, Hunter College at City University of New York
12:40 – 1:30 p.m.
Lunch, Lagoon Plaza (Behind Corwin Pavilion)
1:30 – 3:45 p.m.
Session 3: Lessons of History and Aspects of Workplace Risks
Moderator:
John (Jack) Trumpbour, Research Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard University
Presenters:
Gerald Markowitz, Professor of History, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Graduate Center, City University of New York. “‘A Gift of God?’ The Promise and Peril of New Technologies in the 20th Century”
Barbara Herr Harthorn, Director, NSF Center for Nanotechnology in Society, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies and Anthropology, UC Santa Barbara. “Biased Judgment About Risk as a Regulatory Matter”
Claire Auplat, Postdoctoral Researcher, Imperial College. “Risk Management and Institutional Emergence in Nanotechnologies: Looking at Public Engagement Experiences”
Vivian Weil, Director, Center for Study of Ethics in the Professions, Illinois Institute of Technology. “Report on NanoEthicsBank Survey of Workplace Safety Policies in Nanotechnology Businesses”
Thomas K. Epprecht, Director, Swiss Reinsurance Company. “Risk Governance and Risk Dialogue – an Insurer’s View”
Bill Freudenburg, Professor of Environmental Studies and Sociology, UC Santa Barbara. “What the Field of Nanotechnology Can Learn from the Nuclear Power Experience”
3:45 – 4:00 p.m.
Afternoon Break
4:00 – 5:45 p.m.
Session 4: Current Regulatory Practice Framework: What Would Informed Policy Approaches Look Like?
Co-Moderators:
Elaine Bernard, Executive Director, Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program
John Froines, Director, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and Professor of Environmental Health and Safety, UCLA
Presenters:
Jim Willis, Division Director, Chemical Control Division of the Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxic Substances, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “EPA and Nanotechnology”
Larry Busch, Professor of Sociology, Michigan State University. “Problems and Prospects of Nanotechnologies in the Workplace”
Michele L. Ostraat, Principal Investigator & NOSH Consortium Technical Leader, DuPont Engineering Research and Technology. “DuPont-Environmental Defense Nanorisk Framework and the Nanoparticle Occupational Safety and Health Consortium”
John Barlow Weiner, Associate Chief Counsel, Food and Drug Administration. “FDA Nanotechnology Report on Oversight for FDA Regulated Products That Use Nanotechnology”
Commentator:
Lee Dillard Adams, Deputy Regional Director, Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
5:45 – 7:00 p.m.
Evening Reception, Corwin Pavilion
7:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Dinner and Keynote Address: Nano: “We Are What We Were Then”
Joan Denton, Director, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), State of California and Member, California Green Chemistry Leadership Council
Saturday, November 17
MultiCultural Center Theater
8:45 – 10:30 a.m.
Session 5: The Global Context
Moderator:
Richard P. Appelbaum, Co-Principal Investigator, NSF Center for Nanotechnology in Society; Professor of Sociology and Global and International Studies, UC Santa Barbara
Presenters:
Joe Conti, Graduate Research Fellow with the NSF Center for Nanotechnology in Society and Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Sociology, UC Santa Barbara. “Report on ICON’s ‘Survey of Current Practices in the Nanotechnology Workplace’”
Jaideep Raje, Analyst, Lux Research, Inc. “The Developing Nanotechnology Occupational Safety and Health Landscape”
Nancy J. Jennerjohn, Ph.D. Student, Environmental Health Sciences, UCLA; research centers on the lab-based generation of aerosols containing nanoparticles for characterization. “Report from the 3rd International Symposium on Nanotechnology, Occupational and Environmental Health, August 2007, Taipei”
Garrett Brown, Inspector, Cal OSHA and Coordinator, Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network. “Whatever the Regulations – Will There Be Any Real Enforcement?”
Commentator:
Kevin Rowan, Regional Secretary, North British Trades Union Congress (representing some 69 trade unions and half a million trade union members in the north of England)
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Morning Break
10:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Session 6: Benefits Enhancement and Risk Reduction
Moderator:
Michael Darby, Professor of Policy and Director of the John M. Olin Center for Policy, UCLA
Presenters:
Susan Hackwood, Professor of Electrical Engineering at UC Riverside and Executive Director of the California Council of Science and Technology. “Nano Takes Root In California: Benefits, Enhancements and Risk Reduction”
Sam Lipson, Director of Environmental Health, City of Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Local Oversight of Emerging Technologies: The Cambridge Experiment”
Javiera Barandiaran, MPP Candidate, Goldman School of Public Policy, UC Berkeley. and Coordinator, Roundtable on the Environmental Risks of Nanotechnology. “Local Disclosure Ordinances as Regulatory Catalysts: Early Insights from the Berkeley, California Nanoscale Materials Ordinance”
Jacqueline Isaacs, Associate Director, Center for High-Rate Nano-Manufacturing, Northeastern University. “Modeling Uncertain Health Impacts and Production Costs of SWNT Manufacturing”
Commentator:
John (Jack) Trumpbour, Research Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard University
12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Lunch, Lagoon Plaza (Behind Corwin Pavilion)
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Session 7: Looking to the Future: Health and Safety in the Lab and Workplace; Final Thoughts
Moderator:
John (Jack) Trumpbour, Research Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard University
Presenters:
Jeffrey Birkner, Vice President, Technical Services, Moldex-Metrix, Inc. “Current Respiratory Protection Standards and Devices: Can They Meet the Needs for Nanoparticle Exposures?”
Richard Freeman, Professor of Economics, Harvard University; Co-Director, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School. “Always Read the Small Print: Economics of Risk Assessment in Nanotech OSHA Issues”
Commentator:
Nancy Lessin, Health and Safety Consultant, United Steelworkers
John Froines, Director, Center for Occupational and Environmental Health and Professor of Environmental Health and Safety, UCLA.
3:30 – 4:30
Exhibit Tour (for those who are interested): “Too Small To See”
(Traveling Exhibit on Nanoscale Science Education)
California NanoSystems Institute, UC Santa Barbara
