Risk Assessment of Nanoparticles
Nanotechnology is expected to be the basis of many of the main technological innovations of the 21st century. Research and development in this field is growing rapidly throughout the world. A major output of this activity is the development of new materials in the nanometre scale, including nanoparticles. These are usually defined as particulate materials with at least one dimension of less than 100 nanometres (nm). One nanometre is 10-9 m. By comparison, a human hair is approximately 70,000 nm in diameter, a red blood cell is approximately 5,000 nm wide and simple organic molecules have sizes ranging from 0.5 to 5 nm
Carbon nanotubes
Epithelial cell with intracellular nanoparticles
Nanoparticles include carbon nanotubes, metal nanowires, semiconductor quantum dots and other nanoparticles produced from a huge variety of substances. Responsible development of any new materials requires that risks to health and the general environment associated with the development, production, use and disposal of these materials are addressed. This is necessary to protect workers involved in production and use of these materials, the public and the ecosystem. However, it also helps inform the public debate about the development of these new, potentially beneficial, materials.
Assessment of health risks arising from exposure to chemicals or other substances, requires understanding of the intrinsic toxicity of the substance, the levels of exposure (by inhalation, by ingestion or through the skin) that may occur and any relationship between exposure and health effects. Concerns about the lack of knowledge and possible risks arising from exposure to nanoparticles led the UK Government to request advice from the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering and to the formation of their Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Working Group. Their report, published in July 2004 (http://www.nanotec.org.uk), makes wide ranging recommendations about the need for more and better information and for a coherent approach to these concerns.
The IOM has unique and extensive experience concerning the potential risks from particles and fibres. Our approach combines expertise and state-of-art techniques to identify and characterise exposure scenarios, conduct toxicity evaluations and undertake risk assessments to identify, characterise and estimate the relative safety of nanoparticles. This approach allows us to extend current knowledge and facilitate comparisons between existing substances and new nanoparticles.
IOM nanoparticle activities and initiatives:
The Safety of Nano-materials Interdisciplinary Research Centre (SnIRC) Initiative
- IOM has formed a multidisciplinary consortium of internationally recognised researchers with unique and extensive experience to address nanoparticle risk issues. The SnIRC initiative is based on a long-standing collaboration between the IOM and the Universities of Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Napier. Members of the group include Dr Rob Aitken (IOM), Prof Ken Donaldson (Edinburgh), Prof Jon Ayres (Aberdeen), Prof Vicki Stone (Napier) and Dr Lang Tran (IOM). The group is chaired by Prof Anthony Seaton (IOM). More information about SnIRC can be found at www.snirc.org
Current and recent IOM work
- PARTICLE_RISK is a collaborative research project funded by the European Commission FP6-NEST programme. It involves 7 research organisations throughout Europe and is led by IOM (Project leader Lang Tran). The aim of PARTICLE_RISK Project is to acquire a bank of NESTP (Fullerene C60, Carbon Nanotubes, Carbon Black, CdTe Quantum dot and nano sized gold) and to assess the health risk from exposure to these materials through air or the food supply with a work programme, integrating in vitro experiments, animal models of healthy/susceptible individuals and exposure/risk assessment. PARTICLE_RISK will be completed by 2008.
- Nanoparticles: an Occupational Hygiene Review. RJ Aitken, KS Creely, CL Tran (2004). This report has been published by HSE and may be downloaded from their website http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr274.htm
- A scoping study to identify hazard data needs for addressing the risks presented by nanoparticles and nanotubes (2005).
CL Tran, K Donaldson, V Stone, T Fernandez, A Ford, N Christofi, JG Ayres, M Steiner, JF Hurley, RJ Aitken and A Seaton. This report was commissioned by DEFRA as part of the UK response to the Royal Society report
- A scoping study into the manufacture and use of nanomaterials in the UK (2006). Q Chaudhry, A Boxall, and RJ Aitken. A report for DEFRA.
- A scoping study to identify gaps in environmental regulation for the products and applications of nanotechnologies (2006). Q Chaudhry, J Blackburn, P Floyd, C George, T Nwaogu, A Boxall, and RJ Aitken. A report from DEFRA. The DEFRA reviews may be downloaded from their website.
- REFNANO: Reference materials for engineered nanoparticle toxicology and metrology. RJ Aitken, SM Hankin, CL Tran, K Donaldson, V Stone, P Cumpson, J Johnstone, Q Chaudhry, S Cash (2007). A report for DEFRA. The full report may be downloaded from here.