'Nano' in the environment
Nicholas Wigginton
Monday, 26 May 2008 16:54 UTC
Hi all,
I come from a predominately ‘environmental’ research group i.e. we do environmental chemistry, geochemistry, etc. and for a while we have been studying the environmental impacts of nanotechnology. Well, more specifically, we look at natural nanoparticles that are already in the environment as a sort of baseline for when real nano-products get introduced into the environment, among other reasons. I would guess most of you in this group actually do real ‘nanotechnology’-type research, so I wanted to open up a general discussion in which people like me can talk to people like you about this new potential risk that we may be facing.
Certainly nanomaterials aren’t new in human history, but we now have the tools to understand their reactivities, control their functions, and manipulate matter at the atomic level. We are also producing these products at an increasingly rapid rate without really knowing their environmental (or health) costs.
What do you think? Do you think people tend to overreact when it comes to regulating nano products? Do you think governments should be doing more? How concerned are you with this stuff getting into your water or air or food?
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Replies
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Hi Nick,
thanks for an interesting post – I used to work in ‘real’ nanotechnology research, making TiO2 nanorods. The environmental impact of nanomaterials has always been of interest to me (when you spend 4 years in a lab working with the stuff it would be nice to know how safe it is!). Basically, more research needs to be done. Like you say yourself – there have been natural nanoparticles around for ever and I don’t think that the general public understand that a lot of what scientists make now is really no different to the naturally occuring substances. They just want to control the processes better. It’s the old problem of people just equating man-made with unhealthy and ‘bad’, when this is so often not the case. Prince Charles is a perfect example of that and he shouldn’t stick his nose into such issues and scaremonger people. However, there may well be dangers and some of these fears may be well founded. More funding needs to be allocated – i think it’s true that some tens of billions of dollars are spent on nanotech research but only some tens of MILLIONS of dollars are spent on assessing the environmental and health impacts of such technologies. This needs to become much more balanced.
Thanks again for raising and important issue and good luck with your very worthwhile research!
Ben
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