Forget about lead-tainted mascara or mercury in the salmon filet. The new form of product pollution people are worrying about is nanotechnology—the use of materials measured in billionths of a meter—and how coming into contact with it might damage your health. Fueling the nano-scare is negative press, including a report by the Environmental Working Group that concluded hundreds of consumer products contain poorly-studied nanoscale materials and a landmark study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology that suggests some forms of carbon nanotubes could be as harmful as asbestos, which causes lung cancer if inhaled in sufficient quantities.

Though the Nature study points out risks in the fledging nanotech industry, co-author Andrew Maynard says results like the one in his study are good news, if only because they show that carbon nanotubes can be made safe through more research and better regulations. “There’s already a debate occurring about the potential safety issues of nanotech and how to get around them,” says Maynard. "That's a good thing because it's something that hasn't always happened with previous technologies.”

The government and consumer groups are already considering strengthening safety standards, while research into the effects of the young industry has just begun. Maynard stresses that consumers should be cautious, rather than overly concerned, when using products made with nanomaterials. “This is very clearly a technology that can be used for tremendous good,” he says. “People just need to be smart enough to ask the right questions about how they can use it safely.”

Those questions include determining whether the benefits of using a nanotech product outweigh the possible risks and if the product manufacturer offers more information to help make the decision. Maynard also emphasizes that nanotechnology comes in many different forms, and that before people start wearing masks and swearing off consumer products forever, they should know that each one has a different impact on human health and the environment.

“Comparing a nano chip in the latest Ipod to nanoparticles in sunscreens is like comparing chocolate to cheese,” says Maynard. “[When determining risk] you have to be a little bit more precise about the type of nanotechnology you’re talking about.”

In general, consumers shouldn’t lose sleep over using skin products like sunscreens with nanomaterials, says Maynard, because research indicates that the skin is pretty good at keeping nanomaterials out of the body. Ingesting nanomaterials is of little concern as well, though Maynard does note that researchers currently “know very little” about the effects of consuming the microscopic particles. On the other hand, inhalation of them can be harmful, especially to nano-factory workers, who are the most likely to be exposed.

“Nanomaterial inhalation is probably the area of most concern simply because it’s well known that it’s never good to have particles of materials in the lungs that aren’t supposed to be there,” says Maynard. Most importantly, he says, consumers should look out for anything that could expose them to nanomaterials in large quantities. As with all chemicals, natural or synthetic, the dose makes the poison.

Unfortunately, determining whether products have nanomaterials in them can be challenging because the government currently does not require manufacturers to list nanomaterials as ingredients. As a result, most consumers are still unaware that these microscopic materials are in everything from body washes and baby wipes.

But there are resources for consumers that want to know more, including The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies consumer products database, which currently lists more than 500 manufacturer-identified nanotechnology-based consumer products currently on the market.

Posted on Jul 17, 2008 at 8:20 AM
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