Now that you can drive your "nano" car, listening to your iPod "nano" while wearing "nano" sunscreen and "nano" clothing, the UK's largest organic certifier has just introduced the perfect nano-antidote - a "nano-free" standard for consumer products. The Soil Association - one of the world's pioneers of organic agriculture - announced on January 14 that it is has banned human-made nanomaterials from the organic cosmetics, foods and textiles that it certifies.
According to the US-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, there are over 500 manufacturer-identified consumer products on the market that contain nanomaterials. However, since manufacturers are not required to disclose the presence of nano-scale materials, it's virtually impossible for people to make fully informed choices. In its newly published standard, the Soil Association bans the use of human-made nanomaterials whose basic particle size is less than 125nm and whose mean particle size is less than 200nm. While the Soil Association's ban only affects organic production for goods certified in the UK, other organic certifiers worldwide are expected to follow suit.
More at
http://www.etcgroup.org/en/materials/publications.ht...