Liberal Arts Services

Mitigating Risks

The impacts and risks of new technologies are not always understood, and once negative impacts are apparent, governments can step in to mitigate the effects, as occurred with the ban of hazardous building materials such as lead-based paint and asbestos. The asbestos industry paid staggering sums of money for liability lawsuits after their product was proven to cause cancer and also paid a price for failing to fully understand the product's dangers before putting it on the market. Lawsuits forced new regulations as dangers to public health became apparent.

Mitigating the risks of unanticipated global impacts of new nanotechnologies may require new types of international governance. The United Nations currently governs certain aspects of nuclear weapons and atomic energy because the potential dangers of these technologies are generally agreed upon. So important was the impact of atomic energy that the very first resolution adopted by the new United Nation’s Security Council in 1946 was to call for the peaceful use of atomic energy and the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. This eventually led to the development of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

In 1957, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) was organized as an arm of the United Nations to pursue safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear sciences and technology. The IAEA was developed with the support of the Eisenhower administration and was outlined in President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech in 1953 where he declared that “the United States pledges before you—and therefore before the world—its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma—to devote its entire heart and mind to find the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life.”

The IAEA pursues this mission with three main functions, including inspections of existing nuclear facilities to ensure peaceful use, the development of standards to ensure the stability of nuclear facilities, and encouraging scientists to develop peaceful applications of nuclear technology. However, international regulation does not mean ubiquitous international compliance, as recent actions by noncompliant governments indicate; local desires and political concerns can sometimes trump international regulations on the use of atomic energy.

The basic understanding of what constitutes a “risk” of new technology also varies. For instance, some national governmental bureaucracies regulate both access to the Internet and access to particular websites or domains. For these policymakers, the Internet constitutes a risk to the local order or local customs, and public policy. The German government bars access to neo-Nazi sites, the US prohibits online gambling, and China regulates access to some Christian websites.

Attempts to develop international regulation and control of nanotechnologies will undoubtedly be influenced by international politics and diplomacy. Governments of many nations are currently pursuing military applications of nanotechnology, including new forms of biological warfare agents that could potentially impact the entire planet.