Just came across some great investigative reporting in this 2010 AOL News series on nanotechnology, which has become widespread in food, sunscreens and numerous other consumer products.
Nanotech has been touted as a miracle technology capable of curing all of humanity's ills - but the first safety studies have tied some nanoparticles to serious health risks, including cancer, the series says.
Meanwhile, regulations are virtually non-existent, even as nanoparticles are now in use in up to 10,000 products on the market - part of an industry fuelled by billions in government subsidies, series author Andrew Schneider reports.
The links to all the pieces in the series don't work and take you to Huffington Post's homepage. So I took the liberty of including the correct links here: "Regulated or not, nano-foods coming to a store near you," "Obsession with growth stymies regulators," "Why nanotechnology hasn't (yet) triggered the 'yuck factor,'" "Nano-products are everywhere," "Primer: how nanotechnology works," "Timeline: 16 key moments in nanotech's evolution," "Chart: federal nanotech funding shortchanges safety efforts" and "The nanotech gamble: AOL News' key findings."
