Dear John:

First let me thank you for the opportunity to comment on your editorial, but let me also emphasize that this response is from me as an individual and not as the chair of the various nanotech standards committees that I have the honour to serve.

I really cannot comment on the documents to which you refer in your first two paragraphs as I am not familiar with them and certainly do not have time to study them in detail. However, it is my understanding that the US regulatory system is based largely on a need for demonstrable harm prior to regulatory control, rather than the European system that enshrines the “precautionary principle,” though this term has a rather specific meaning that is often misinterpreted to mean “proven safety prior to permission to use” by certain groups.

Having said this, I believe that both regulatory systems do have overarching requirements regarding the essential safety of products, though the onus to demonstrate that this is not the case falls on different shoulders depending on which side of the Atlantic one resides.

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