An independent review has slammed the United States' strategy for research into nanotechnology's potential health and environmental risks.

Generated by the National Research Council, which provides independent scientific advice for the US government, the 10 December report criticizes the federal plan for not having specific goals, central accountability or sufficient input from interested parties. It also says that unrelated research, such as projects on the delivery of medicines using nano-sized tools, is passed off as research on health risks. That work is "really tangential", says report chair David Eaton, a professor of environmental health at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Changes to the government's plan that would have addressed some of these concerns were nearly legislated by Congress this year, but the effort quietly expired in the Senate.