CRN Questions PEN Report

WASHINGTON, DC-In response to a recent report released by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN; Washington, DC) detailing the regulatory challenges posed by nanomaterials, Andrew Shao of the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), released this statement:

“Nanotechnology has been used in various products for decades, including drugs, medical devices, cosmetics, conventional foods and dietary supplements. As the prevalence of nanomaterials continues to rise, FDA (Rockville, MD) is examining how to best address this emerging technology in all regulated industries.

"We question the true motives behind this report from ...PEN which provides a very limited amount of useful information on nanotechnology and paints a misleading picture by implying that only one industry faces questions about nanotechnology. This report masquerades as a legitimate review of the use of nanomaterials in dietary supplements but in reality it seems to be an attempt to explain the authors’ views on dietary supplement regulations and their suggestions for change.

"As far as we are aware, there are no specific safety issues associated with the use of nanotechnology. There is one area of agreement with the report: that FDA could use more resources to better do its job; however, adequate agency funding and nanotechnology are not specific to dietary supplements-these issues affect all industries regulated by FDA. We encourage FDA to evolve with emerging technologies, such as nanotechnology, and welcome further dialogue with the agency on how to proceed with reasonable regulation of these new technologies-regulation that is able to be implemented by the industry, enforced by the agency and would benefit consumers.”