Safety aspects of nanotechnology based activity

•We encourage the safety of nano related workplace through this article.•We examine the current state of art about nano related workplace and discuss the challenges and possible solution.•Increasing awareness among workers will increase safety at the nano related workplace.

Nanoscience has emerged rapidly in terms of interdisciplinary research, technological applications, and consumer products. The unique properties of engineered nanomaterials may be accompanied by undesired health hazards, leading to a concurrent interest in the safety of nanotechnology related work, application and disposal environment. However, the field of nano-environmental safety has fallen behind commercial development due to the lack of resources and, in some cases, motivation in researching this field. In order to encourage nano-environmental safety and determine if work is needed to answer research questions in this area NSF organized a workshop with participants from universities, national laboratories and industry. The purpose of the workshop was to share information across organizations, discuss the current state of nano-safety, and identify research challenges and solutions. This article presents the significant outcomes from the study.