The Food and Drug Administration said it plans an meeting to discuss the new kinds of nanotechnology materials being developed for use in products it regulates, including drugs, foods, cosmetics and medical devices. The FDA said the meeting would help alert the agency to any scientific issues about nanotechnology. At that scale, materials are measured in nanometers or billionths of meter. Nanotechnology involves the manufacture and manipulation of materials at the molecular or atomic level.

The FDA announcement comes as officials with Germanys Federal Institute for Risk Assessment continue to probe cases of respiratory problems, some of them severe, in people who had used recently introduced aerosol cleaning product called Magic Nano. The product, which is not sold in the United States, has since been withdrawn from sale in Germany. At that scale, materials are measured in nanometers or billionths of meter. sheet of paper, in comparison, is 100,000 nanometers thick. Nanoscale materials are generally less than nanometers in diameter.

At that scale, materials are measured in nanometers or billionths of meter. They seem to be more open about finding out whats going on rather than saying they have everything under control, said Andrew Maynard, chief science adviser to The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, which was jointly established last year by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

The Food and Drug Administration said it plans an meeting to discuss the new kinds of nanotechnology materials being developed for use in products it regulates, including drugs, foods, cosmetics and medical

Nanoscale materials are generally less than nanometers in diameter. sheet of paper, in comparison, is 100,000 nanometers thick. At that scale, materials are measured in nanometers or billionths of meter. The FDA announcement comes as officials with Germanys Federal Institute for Risk Assessment continue to probe cases of respiratory problems, some of them severe, in people who had used recently introduced aerosol cleaning product called Magic Nano. The product, which is not sold in the United States, has since been withdrawn from sale in Germany.

At that scale, materials are measured in nanometers or billionths of meter. The FDA said the meeting would help alert the agency to any scientific issues about nanotechnology. The FDA announcement comes as officials with Germanys Federal Institute for Risk Assessment continue to probe cases of respiratory problems, some of them severe, in people who had used recently introduced aerosol cleaning product called Magic Nano. The product, which is not sold in the United States, has since been withdrawn from sale in Germany.