The NSF-EPA Centers for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology: What They Taught Us
The NSF/EPA-supported Centers for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (CEINs) offer an example of the critical role that federal governments played in establishing the infrastructure and expertise required to better understand the interactions of nanoscale materials with living systems and the natural environment. The CEINs were established at a time when the nanotechnology landscape was characterized by uncertainty, speculation, and misinformation. Toxicological data and exposure risks were largely unknown and few validated methods existed that would allow for the collection of such information. There were many questions, few answers, and limited resources available to identify and fill the many data gaps. This chapter describes the establishment of the CEINs and what we have learned from them after their 10 years of existence.
