An advertising postcard from Mr. Carruthers, silver-plater, circa 1923, hangs in a friend’s kitchen: “If there be economy in anything, it certainly is in getting the good old silverware properly replated--for when properly replated, it is as superior to the trash made nowadays as gold is to brass.”

I thought of Mr. Carruthers recently as I read a report from our appliance engineers. They had just tested the SilverCare washer, which its manufacturer, Samsung, claims “releases up to 400 billion silver ions that then penetrate deep into the fabric to sanitize clothing.” It’s one of a growing number of consumer products with nanotechnology claims and one of the first we’ve tested.

“Nanotechnology” sounds so freakishly futuristic that my first reaction was to think it’s pure sci-fi. But the buzz in manufacturing, medicine, consumer groups, and the government shows it’s very much in the here and now. Maybe a little too now. We seem to have missed a few steps: manufacturing standards, labeling regulations, safety guidelines, and oh, yes, efficacy requirements.

For a definition, I turned to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a federal research and development program involving 23 agencies. The NNI says that nanotechnology is research and development at the atomic, molecular, or macromolecular level of 1 to 100 nanometers; that their size dictates that the resulting items or systems will have novel properties and functions; and that they must be able to be controlled or manipulated at the atomic level.

OK, so a nanometer is small--about one 100,000th the width of a human hair--and growing in reach. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars maintains a database of consumer products with nanotech claims: more than 200 items, as diverse as face creams and fungus-fighting socks.

The technology could bring some real medical benefits, including cancer diagnosis and delivery of medicine to a specific part of the body. In our homes, nanotechnology could mean stronger and lighter products, cleaner environments, and lower energy costs. But concerns abound that nanoparticles can behave in unpredictable ways: They go places in the body previously off-limits to their clunky cousins; they might have altered magnetic properties; they might be able to move from package to person in a way we just don’t yet understand.

But we should. Before these products show up en masse in stores and doctors’ offices, a worldwide effort is needed to understand what nanoparticles can do to our health and to the environment. Nanotech products need to be labeled so that consumers can choose whether to accept their current unknowns. This fall, the Food and Drug Administration will hold a public meeting on nanotechnology in foods, cosmetics, and drugs. CR will cover the story as we continue to test the efficacy of nanotech products in the months ahead.