Jetpacks and human implant technology have been identified as the two emerging and future technologies that present the greatest potential risk to consumers in a new report by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).
The findings were published in OPSS’s first ‘Horizon Scan’, a research report examining emerging technological changes that have implications for product safety and regulation.
Working in collaboration with Arup Foresight, OPSS conducted an initial assessment of 71 specific technologies of interest, and identified the 20 technologies which it identified as the most relevant to its remit.
Other potential ‘high-harm’ technologies identified include the internet of things; batteries; one-click manufacturing; smart appliances; VR; new forms of automated recreational mobility and nanobots.
The report’s executive summary notes that the work ‘was designed to include several collaborative sessions, with extensive knowledge sharing throughout, to ensure that OPSS can continue to build its horizon scanning capability as it focuses on different elements of the changing regulatory and policy landscape.’
The report also flags concerns about online marketplaces – an area of ongoing concern for Trading Standards. It notes: ‘Growth in peer-to-peer sales and distributed supply chains may also be harder to monitor. In particular, the rise of social commerce may make it more difficult to track and verify the quality and safety of products and product vendors, posing challenges to market surveillance. Recent examples have included the sale of untested home cosmetics via short video sharing social media sites.’
In October last year the Government announced the founding of the new Regulatory Innovation Office, a body designed to ‘reduce the burden of red tape and speed up access to new technologies that improve our daily lives – from AI in healthcare to emergency delivery drones.’
The full OPSS Horizon Scan 1.0 report is available here.
