The council, to be based at Rice University in Houston, was created to bring together industry, government, and environmental and social organizations to identify nano-issues before they become problems and to quickly fund needed research.
"We think there is a need to create a new mechanism for these people to work together," said Kristen Kulinowski, executive director of Rice's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology and a co-founder of the group. She added that she hopes citizen groups will overcome their reluctance.
With about $500,000 in industry donations, the council hopes to answer questions about risk and advise governments on how best to regulate the new substances.
The attempt at preemptive cooperation drew praise from some who have opted to join.
"It seems to me if we create an organized space for these different interests to find common ground, that bodes well for a much less contentious development for the technology," said Davis Baird, chairman of philosophy at the University of South Carolina and associate director of that university's NanoCenter.
William Provine of DuPont Co., a major developer of nanotech products, was also upbeat. "There's no crisis here," he said, referring to current safety concerns. "But we also want to be respectful and say, 'Not everything is known.' "
But others said they were chary. Jennifer Sass of the Natural Resources Defense Council, who was invited to join but will not participate for now, said the group's "heart is in the right place" but worried that it "may be heavily influenced by industry because that's where the funding is coming from."
Scott Walsh of Environmental Defense in Washington, who will attend to listen but not as a member, expressed similar concerns.
And Pat Mooney of the Ottawa-based citizen's organization ETC Group said he had declined to join. "The whole tone of the approach is 'How can we convince society we're nice guys?,' and that's just not going to fly," he said.
Mooney was also critical of the group's claim to be "international."
"It doesn't cut it to have Mitsubishi from Japan and L'Oreal from France. Two-thirds of the globe is left out in this process," including most of the world's poor, he said.
Mooney and others expressed more confidence in a broader effort being organized by the Dillon, Colo.-based Meridian Institute, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and a Canadian public corporation. The Global Dialogue on Nanotechnology and the Poor will focus on environmental and health concerns but especially on nanotech's potential to help developing countries, such as by cleaning up water and making cheap electricity.
