The Risks of Nanotechnology

This new technology has been touted as the next revolu-tion in many industries, with three to four new prod-ucts entering the market each week, more than 600nanoproducts already on the market, and sales of over$50 - 88 billion in 2007.

This includes everything fromsunscreen and stain resistant clothing to food, food pack-aging and dietary supplements. Investments in the globalnanofood market alone are expected to reach $20 billionin 2010, with the world’s biggest companies, including Altria, Nestlé, Kraft, Heinz and Unilever, involved innanotechnology research and development.

However, in the rush to incorporate nanoparticles intoproducts already being marketed to the public, compara-tively little money has been devoted to researching thehealth and environmental consequences of nanotechnol-ogy. In fact, a recent study by the Government Account-ability Office (GAO) revealed that less than the 3% (of theapproximately $1.6 billion government nano research budget) claimed is being devoted to environmental,health and safety research.

Smaller is Different

Nanoscale materials are very different than their largercounterparts, with distinct electronic, magnetic, chemicaland mechanical properties. Nanoparticles have an in-creased surface area, which offers more space for interac-tion with other substances. This increased interaction withtheir surroundings means that substances at the nanoscaleare more reactive and have higher toxicity than they do attheir normal size. Picture a coffee maker. If you fill it with whole coffee beans, you get a very weak cup of coffee. But if you grind the beans first, you will increase the surface areaof the coffee beans and get a dark, strong cup of coffee.

Adding to the concern of increased toxicity, substancesthat are stable in larger forms (such as aluminum) canalso become reactive or explosive in nanoparticle form,creating the potential for health effects that are not seen when the substance is in its larger form.Due to their extremely small size, nanoparticles have thepotential to bypass the blood-brain barrier (the membranethat controls the passage of substances from the bloodinto the central nervous system). They also have the po-tential to pass the placental barrier. One 2004 study foundthat nanoparticles can easily travel from nasal passage- ways to the brain, and another found that gold nanoparti-cles can move across the placenta from mother to fetus.

A more recent study published in the highly respected jour-nal

Nature

revealed that carbon nanotubes may exhibitthe same cancer-causing potential as asbestos.

Once inthe bloodstream, nanomaterials can circulate throughoutthe body and be taken up by organs and tissues. Given thehigher toxicity of these particles, it is disturbing that thelength of time they remain in the organs and what dosemay cause harmful effects are unknown.

anotechnology is the process of manipulating matter at the molecular level — or

nanoscale

. Nanomaterials have at least one dimension that is 100 nanometersor less. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter — approximately 1/100,000 of ahuman hair.