NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: Writing in Industry Week, Scott Rickert wonders about the nanotechnology industry’s response to recent safety concerns:

According to a recent article in Small Times, a nanotechnology trade journal, Matthew Nordan of Lux Research was quoted as saying, “I know of at least two personal care companies that have delivered the message from on high explicitly not allowing the words ‘nanotechnology,’ ‘nano-engineered,’ ‘nano-capsule,’ or anything else like them.”

We haven’t yet heard reports of companies halting research or product development based on the ruling, but I fear it’s a topic of discussion in labs and boardrooms across the country.

Seems to me, these decisions represent the ostrich approach, sidestepping the issues, rather than seeing them as an opportunity to set standards and build an attitude of trust with consumers. My biggest fear is that the “ostrich factor” isn’t short term. Five years from now, will we still have our heads in the sand? Meanwhile the rest of the world is moving ahead on nanotechnology in logical, considered fashion.

I have some related thoughts here.