Nano-Hazard Symbol Contest

Winners of Nano-Hazard Symbol Contest Announced at World Social Forum, Nairobi, Kenya

An estimated 30,000 people gathered at the World Social Forum in Nairobi this week where participants had a chance to vote for their favorite Nano-Hazard Symbol – a design that warns of the presence of engineered nanomaterials (1 nanometer = 1 billionth of a meter).

The winners of the international graphic design competition were announced today. The winning designs were submitted by: Dimitris Deligiannis (Greece), Shirley Gibson (Scotland), and Kypros Kyprianou (England).

“Tiny tech is no small matter – there was intense competition to design a nano-hazard symbol, and enormous interest in Nairobi,” said Pat Mooney of ETC Group. “We ended up with three winners who were virtually tied for first place,” explained Mooney.

The competition netted 482 unique designs from 24 countries. An independent panel of judges selected 16 finalists that appeared on the ballot in Nairobi. (The 16 finalists can be found here)

The winning designs will be submitted to international standard-setting bodies responsible for hazard characterisation and could be used as a label on product-packaging or workroom walls. Because of their extremely small size and large surface area, nano-scale particles may be more reactive and more toxic than larger particles of the same substance. Even though hundreds of products containing engineered nanoparticles are on the market, the toxicology of nanoparticles is largely unknown.

(More information on the competition, along with the list of judges, can be found here: etcgroup.org/nanohazard)

ETC Group, News Release, Wednesday, 24 January 2007 etcgroup.org

All 482 design submissions can be viewed here. and The 16 finalists for the Nairobi-phase of the contest here.

ETC contact information: Pat Mooney and Kathy Jo Wetter of ETC Group are attending the World Social Forum. We have a booth at the WSF venue and / or can be reached by email: Pat Mooney: etc@etcgroup.org , Kathy Jo Wetter: kjo@etcgroup.org

Hope Shand (US) hope@etcgroup.org tel: 919 960-5767
Silvia Ribeiro (Mexico) silvia@etcgroup.org tel: +52 5555 6326 64

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