Toxicity Study to Pop Nanobubble?

26 Jun 2008

The fact that worldwide production of items using nanotechnology has quadrupled in the past two years highlights the profitability of these new techniques.  Now read on….

(info courtesy of globalspec.com)

For years now, various groups have been making ominous noises about the health and environmental risks of nanotechnology. Will recent studies linking carbon nanotubes and buckyballs to cancer risks start a public backlash against nanotech?
The dialogue about the possible health risks of nanotechnology has been ongoing. Now, a new study indicates that long, narrow carbon nanotubes (CNTs) behave like asbestos fibers in mice, mimicking the inflammation effects. This means that the CNTs could potentially trigger mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer that can take 30 or more years to develop. Meanwhile, computer simulations show that buckyballs dissolve in cell membranes and pass through to reform on the other side, which may also hold health implications. Could these possible health risks change the way companies develops or use nanotechnology?

(see earlier Eccles posts on this subject – ed.)