Small size - large impact - Nanowerk

nanotechnologies – must also consider environmental
impact issues carefully. Product lifecycle and end-of-use
issues provide an important point of entry for engineered
nanoparticles into the environment. Thus, both producers
and users of “bottom-up” engineered nanomaterials must
address the issue of their products’ environmental impact.
Since engineered nanomaterials differ so much from
either molecular or bulk substances, extrapolation from
any existing information is problematic.
The issues surrounding the environmental impacts
of “bottom-up” nanomaterials are referred to here
generically as “nanoparticles”. Nanotechnology is too
young an industry, and too little is known about its
materials, to be well served by a formal risk assessment
process. These quantitative measures of environmental
impact require extensive and complete data on a wealth
of issues ranging from nanoparticle production levels
to fate and transport in aquifers to eco-toxicology. Given
the wide range of nanoparticle types, sizes and formats,
it is likely to be at least a decade before this information
is developed, and even then, information will be highly
material-specific. Until that time, the best strategy
is to identify which critical parameters will determine
whether certain nanoparticles are either “very safe” or
“high risk”. By bringing that data into focus early, we
can narrow our attention to those material types and
formats which could most likely affect the environment.
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