If an acid will eat through anything, what kind of container can you use for it? If nano particles are the smallest bits made, how can you build a filter to keep it from causing harmful effects if breathed or absorbed into the human body? These are questions that have been asked - should be asked. But now baby steps are being taken to collect answers for some of them.
Technology offers an apparently unlimited variety of opportunity - but opportunity cuts both ways. Anything that presents a different pattern than our bodies (or other organic entities) have evolved to deal with - represents a potential danger. And the effects may cause a lot of damage before we learn to recognize the symptoms.
We will not stop research, obviously. And now a consortium - including the Environmental Defense Fund and DuPont - has come up with a first step - a mechanism to begin to capture the data that can assist in assessing the risks associated with new nanotechnology. It's called the Nanotechnology Risk Framework.
It can be downloaded now for your information. It is a paper-based system at this point - a lot of data is collected and stored in a totally useless format. But at least the thought-process is in place, and the data is being collected. Soon, one can hope that progressive heads with look for ways this data can be incorporated into the research process in an active way, and be constantly updated and refined as time goes by.
This is a job for - MetaDataMan!!