Nanotech industry advocates gear up to fight back

From a piece in Red Herring:

“Mark Mansour, an attorney for Foley & Lardner, issued the warning during a talk at the NanoBusiness 2006 conference in New York City. He said nanotech businesses need to step up their efforts to explain the complex technology to the public—before their foes do…

” ‘Friends of the Earth grabbed the initiative and defined it for the industry,’ said Mr. Mansour. ‘What Friends of the Earth did was nothing short of declaring war on nanotechnology.’ ”

This is perhaps a bit strongly stated. Protesting nanoparticles in cosmetics is not the same as declaring war on all of nanotechnology. But certainly industry needs to pay attention to public perception issues. —Christine