Title: Nanotechnology within the framework of human factors engineering with special reference to developing countries like Saudi Arabia

Authors: Sayed Aliul Hasan Rizvi, Zahid A. Khan, Sheikh I. Ishrat

Addresses: Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. ' Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. ' Industrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Abstract: It is foreseen that very shortly, the technological world would be witnessing everything, right from food and agriculture to building materials and space shuttles, made up of nano-materials. Present paper highlights the ongoing micro-tech and hi-tech based systems and devices which have already started damaging the natural senses of their end-users, the humans. On one hand, generations of developing and underdeveloped countries strive for achieving full benefits of the newly arriving technologies, and on the other, the devastating ill-effects of the technology start in parallel to overtax them in terms of handling the related human-centric problems. Present work, in this context, made an attempt to awaken the policy-planners of tomorrow|s technological world, particularly in developing countries like Saudi Arabia in getting ready for handling the risks involved, from human factors engineering point of view, by way of the assessment of the quotient |risk/benefit ratio| associated with the nanotechnology applications.

Keywords: nanotechnology; human factors engineering; HFE; human health; developing countries; Saudi Arabia.

DOI: 10.1504/IJNM.2009.028138

International Journal of Nanomanufacturing, 2009 Vol.4 No.1/2/3/4, pp.300 - 307

Published online: 07 Sep 2009 *

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