Nobody Knows What Nanoparticles Do -- Yet They Are in Your Food, Cosmetics, and Toys

By Carole Bass, E Magazine. Posted July 11, 2009.

Yet studies on nanotech's downside are a mere nanospeck compared to the research that's being done on how this technology can benefit humanity--and corporate profits. Of $1.5 billion in federal nano spending each year, only between 1% and 2.5% goes toward studying environmental, health and safety risks. Worse, there's no national strategy for deciding what questions need to be answered, or what to do with those answers as they arrive.

Occupational Hazards

Since the 17th century, when Italian physician Bernardino Ramazzini pioneered the field of occupational medicine, researchers have looked to the workplace for advance warning of new illnesses. From janitors blinded by ammonia fumes to chimney sweeps who absorbed cancer-causing soot through their skin, workers get sick first and most acutely because of their intense, daily toxic exposures. That's why much of the still-sparse nano health and safety research has focused on the possible hazards of working with nanomaterials. Scientists can't expose workers to potential toxins and watch to see if they keel over. But if employers cooperate, researchers can find out what materials workers are using, in what amounts and forms, and under what conditions. Then they can simulate those exposures with lab animals.

Some studies find little or no risk. Others are alarming. Last year, British researchers reported that when long, straight carbon nanotubes--shaped like asbestos fibers--were injected into mice, they caused the same kind of damage as asbestos. Of course, workers wouldn't ordinarily stick themselves with a needleful of CNTs. But a follow-up study this year, by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), found that when mice inhaled CNTs, the tiny tubes migrated from their lungs to the surrounding tissue--the very spot where asbestos causes the rare cancer known as mesothelioma. One reason nanomaterials can cause trouble is that they are small enough to evade the body's defenses. In a University of Rochester study of the accidental nanoparticles known as ultrafine pollution, they bypassed the protective blood-brain barrier and slipped directly into the brain's olfactory bulb. Other research demonstrates that nanomaterials can penetrate the deepest part of the lungs. From there, they cross into the bloodstream and various organs.

Based on evidence like this, the European Union's occupational health and safety agency issued an expert report in March, citing nanoparticles as the number-one emerging risk to workers. In the U.S., NIOSH has issued a guidance document urging employers to avoid exposing workers to nanomaterials--for example, by enclosing equipment and using ventilation to reduce dust and fumes. But NIOSH has no regulatory power; it can only suggest.

The Pig-Pen Effect

"You're producing a personal cloud of exposure," Paul Lioy warned. "Every time you breathe. Every time you move. If the materials you're wearing have [nano]materials that can be released, they will be released. It's basically the Pig-Pen effect.

Lioy, the Rutgers environmental scientist, was speaking theoretically. His audience was fellow scientists, gathered in Bethesda, Maryland, for a workshop sponsored by the federal government. The workshop's title: "Human & Environmental Exposure Assessment of Nanomaterials." Lioy's assignment: Talk about the need for research to "characterize exposure to the general population from industrial processes and industrial and consumer products containing nanomaterials." His message: There is no research on whether and how the general population is exposed to nanomaterials. Searching the scholarly literature, Lioy's associates "spent hours looking for data ... and found nothing," he said.

While workers are on the front lines of nanoexposure, Lioy cautioned against ignoring consumer exposures. "We are all in contact with it--300 million of us, if we use products that have nanoparticles," he declared. And while nanomaterials that are embedded in a hard surface like a computer keyboard are probably not a big worry, clothing and cosmetics might be a different story, he said. That's where his comparison to Pig-Pen, the Peanuts character forever surrounded by a cloud of dirt, comes in: the idea that every time we move, nanoparticles might come loose from our moisturizer or our stain-resistant togs.

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Carole Bass, a journalist, writes about the environment, workplace health, legal affairs and other subjects.

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