Kampala — There is frenzy in Kampala, especially among the middle class, of a new type of small glass, with near magical powers, claimed to enhance body mood and replenish water and other beverages with lost essential minerals.

The glass is believed to have been developed at high altitude.

It costs between Shs500,000- 1,000,000. The glass, whose brand name is withheld, claims to make sick people get nutrients from its use. One pours water and drinks. It is also claimed that carrying it in one's pocket makes them healthier.

It is one of the numerous products imported into the country based on a new era of advanced research based on nanotechnology, a science that manipulates matter at the scale of atoms and molecules. The atoms can be used in a wide range of applications like food, medicine, cosmetics, pesticides and crop sector development.

But a senior official working with the Uganda National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST) said there is a likely public health danger to consuming products of nanotech, which have not undergone a bio-safety check.

The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because the council has no policy in place yet to monitor or evaluate the safety and effectiveness of nanotech products, said some of the products are counterfeits. The officer believes that Uganda is still lagging behind in nanotechnology generation.

"Like this glass in town. It is kiwaani (fake). But we cannot tell if it is right or wrong, because there is no capacity to taste it," the officer said.

The officer's comments followed numerous complaints from the public that the glass was not working.

But Ms Ruth Mbabazi, the Secretary to the National Bio-safety Committee acknowledges that Uganda had no policy or tools to evaluate products of nanotechnology, before pronouncing them to be safe and sold on the market.

She however said some products were already on the market. The committee comprising of experts from various research and policy institutions, also looks at UNCST approved technology research in Uganda has a big mandate in monitoring products of genetic medication like those from biotechnology.

So far, the committee monitors confined genetically modified banana research in Kawanda, and cassava at Namulonge agriculture research institutes.

But biotechnology, involving the transfer or modification of a specific gene with desired traits is quite different from nanotechnology, yet Uganda is also still struggling with developing a regulatory framework.

Ms Mbabazi said it was important that the environmental, health and safe use of genetically modified organism (GMOs) is understood. "Nanotechnology should fall within our mandate. Uganda needs to be aggressive with developing laws to monitor its use," she said.

But Dr. Terry Kahuma, the Executive Director of Uganda National Bureau of Standards ( UNBS), said there is a need to develop standards to ascertain and quantify the effectiveness of new products of nanotech. He said UNBS had come up with a mechanism of developing standards for health products, if they have a "perceived danger".

"But buying a product is voluntary. Use your eyes and ask questions," Dr Kahuma said.

Dr Charles Mugoya, an expert on biotechnology, the science that makes GMOs, said the use of both nanotechnology and biotechnology together is good but should be regulated.

Dr Mugoya, working with the Eastern Africa's research body, ASARECA, said many developments in science were good for food production, but may also be misused by criminals, by developing undesirable products and not adhering to ethical standards.

Developed GMOs are helping to produce disease and drought tolerant food varieties in the wake of warming global temperatures. Climate change is fuelling new diseases and occurrences of previously suppressed ones. There has been a rise of Uganda's temperature from 0.2-0.3degrees in the last fifty years.

The implications are that it's no longer sustainable with the current technologies to either develop medicine or grow enough food. The insects and pests, as they adjust to the changes in temperature, are gaining further strength to attack. According to Equinet, a southern African regional body, monitoring the access and fairness in access to health by the population, governments in the region need to develop policies to monitor new technologies and their impacts on food production.