Insurance companies won’t cover nanotechnology anymore
Nanotechnology and its subfields, especially nanomedicine, are getting bigger every day. The development is very fast, new things are discovered all the time. The technology has already revolutionized electronics (many electronic devices contain nanomaterials), doctors and pharmaceutical companies are relying on nanomedicine to discover better ways to deliver drugs. However, how nanomaterials affect the environment and humans hasn’t really been proven yet. That’s why insurance companies find it impossible for them to “swim” in the nanotechnology area.
As of August 2008, according to a research by NanotechProject.org, there are 803 products on the market that are using nanomaterials.
“Nanotechnology is a big problem because the technology is moving much faster, as we all know, than information on health and environmental safety,” said Robert Blaunstein of Nanotechnology Risk Management, a firm that advises industries, insurers, and investors on how to best manage the risks of nanotechnology.
The largest insurance companies seem to agree. “The biggest challenge facing insurers may be the diverse nature of nanotechnology and the lack of information regarding its impact to health and the environment,” wrote David Baxter in a newsletter of SafeNano Initiative.
“Generally speaking, the role of the insurance industry is always enabling risk taking,” said Thomas Epprecht, an expert on emerging risks in risk engineering services at Swiss Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurance companies. “Because risk is our business, nanotechnology is up front…subject to risk consideration.”
Nanotechnology is an “enabling technology”, said Blaunstein, a veteran of the insurance industry. “For the most part, it will improve products, which means better business for insurers. If they learn more about it, learn more on how to manage it, I think clearly they would be in a better position to provide insurance,” he said. “And that is already happening, he says. Insurers are already carefully watching nanotechnology.”
Source: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/es900041e / Photo courtesy of nanotechproject.org
