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The union movement is worried that workers in the nanotechnology sector might be facing a health time bomb, like asbestos.
Nanotechnology is now used in more than 800 everyday items, including sunscreen and cosmetics.
The ACTU says there are growing fears about the safety of producing and using nanomaterials, yet there are few specific protections available for workers.

ASHLEY HALL: Scientists have been thinking about how to manipulate individual atoms and molecules since the late 1950s.
But it's only been in the past couple of decades, that they've developed equipment that's up to the task of exploring nanotechnology.
MIKE FORD: Nano means ten to the minus nine metres; so that's about one ten-thousandth of the width of a human hair.
ASHLEY HALL: Mike Ford is the associate director of the Institute for Nanoscale Technology at the University of Technology, Sydney.
MIKE FORD: What we're trying to do in nanotechnology is be able to engineer and control objects at that scale.
So that's like the scale of atoms and molecules.
ASHLEY HALL: Nanotechnology is now used in more than 800 everyday items, including car fuel lines, bed sheets, building materials, cosmetics and sunscreens.

MIKE FORD: Nanoscale sunscreens have been around a long time. They contain zinc oxide nanoparticles, and they're still very, very good at absorbing UV but they're clear.
ASHLEY HALL: The fear is that nanoparticles are so small, they could be easily inhaled, or pass through the skin, possibly causing diseases in a similar way to asbestos.
And once they're reduced to the nanoscale, familiar materials can take on a fresh personality.
MIKE FORD: Even though they might be dealing with substances that, in terms of traditional chemical safety are very well known about, when you make things nanoscopic, you turn them into nanoscale objects, they can behave in very, very different ways.
ASHLEY HALL: So manufacturing and handling guidelines don't properly apply to the nanoscopic form.

The union movement argues that's putting workers at risk.

ASHLEY HALL: Geoff Fary is the assistant secretary of the ACTU.
GEOFF FARY: There should be an abundance of caution with nanotechnology to make sure that we're not going to reap a similar awful harvest in years to come.

GEOFF FARY: Remember when asbestos was introduced, it was considered to be a miracle product and it wasn't until many years later that we found the devastating effect it had.

ASHLEY HALL: He says nanoscale chemicals should be classified as new chemicals and undergo all the appropriate safety checks.
The ACTU also wants the Federal Government to introduce product labelling, to ensure consumers and workers know when they're using goods produced with the help of nanotechnology.

ASHLEY HALL: But a spokeswoman for the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Kim Carr, says while the Government is very concerned for the health and safety of workers, it won't be introducing new regulations.
And it wants a registry kept of all the companies using nanotechnology.
GEOFF FARY: We just think it's time to adopt the precautionary principle: stop and have a really close look at what we're doing.

She says the Government understands that nanotechnology is a rapidly emerging area, and it will work to keep pace.
TONY EASTLEY: Ashley Hall.