First Insurance Exclusion of "Nano" - Withdrawn?
Some information about a US insurance company planning to exclude coverage for "carbon nanotubes" and "nanotechnology" lately hit various newsportals. According to these, the insurance company says it plans to attach a nanotubes and nanotechnology exclusion to all policies issued for business owner, motor carrier, garage, and other insurance products.
According to Safety BLR and Nanolawreport, the Continental Western Insurance Group said that starting November 15, it will exclude coverage of bodily injury and property damage of what it calls "the, as of yet, unknown and unknowable risks created by the products and processes that involved nanotubes."
According to a company statement, "it would not be prudent for us to knowingly provide coverage for risks that are, as of yet, unknown and unquantifiable". "We are all too aware of what happened to companies involved with asbestos-related exposures in the past and see this as a very similar issue." Reports have raised concerns regarding health risks from workers that may be inhaling carbon nanotubes during the manufacture of certain products. The carbon nanotubes resemble asbestos fibers in appearance, raising the concern that they may cause illness similar to that linked to asbestos.
However, although Continental originally posted the exclusion and two supporting documents on its website, the materials were removed shortly after. Nanolawreport managed to save copies of the supporting information before deletion:
- Notice to Policyholders
- Nanotubes and Nanotechnology Exclusion
For those who will have a look at the documents, they raise questions about how to, in practice, implement the exclusion of general terms such as "nanotechnology".
For now, the company seems to have withdrawn its initial plans, or at least postponed. Nevertheless, other insurance companies have also recently been very alert concerning the topic of nanotechnology and liability.