Nano Tech. Spurs Continued Health Concerns

* * Beatles-Beatles writes to tell us Yahoo is reporting that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is working hard to develop guidelines for working with nanomaterials. There have been no proven health risks due to nanomaterials but Pat Roy Mooney, executive director of the ETC Group (an Ottawa-based non-profit that studies the impact of technology on people and the environment) was quoted saying that "No one knows, and that's the problem." Some feel that continued research and testing is needed to understand the nano-age before continuing to jump with both feet.

Comments

I'd be surprised

[Julian Morrison]

What we're talking about here, in the case of nanotubes, is carbon, not silicon. Silicon is basically biologically null. Humans don't use it for much, barely need to eat it, can't digest or break down its oxide which is the form that causes silicosis. Nanotubes by contrast are elemental carbon, a material whose reaction-products the body knows intimately. In less than ridiculous quantities (ie: not enough to cause "black lung"), I think nanotubes would be quickly swept up and junked by the body. In fact, I suspect the difficulty in medical use of nanotubes would be more how to keep them undamaged, than how to keep them from persisting.

This strikes me as the usual eco-weenies looking, searching desperately, for anything that might retard the techical progress which they regard as unnatural.

Re:I'd be surprised

[tsa]

Silicon is basically biologically null. Humans don't use it for much, barely need to eat it, can't digest or break down its oxide which is the form that causes silicosis.

Porous silicon is digested by the body. Research is being done on its ability to slowly release drugs.

I think nanotubes would be quickly swept up and junked by the body. In fact, I suspect the difficulty in medical use of nanotubes would be more how to keep them undamaged, than how to keep them from persisting.

I wouldn't be so sure. Conjugated pi-systems are usually fairly hard to break down, and a carbon nanotube is one huge, very stable, conjugated pi-system.

This strikes me as the usual eco-weenies looking, searching desperately, for anything that might retard the techical progress which they regard as unnatural.

Amen to that. I couldn't have said it better myself.

I just came back from a nanotechnology conference. I didn't see much that hasn't been done before under another name. The only really interesting thing was Pulsed Laser Deposition, with which you can build materials monolayer by monolayer very accurately. This really is nanostructuring and can thus be called nanotechnology.

Re:Hmm... where have I seen this before...

[Bahumat]

Heh. I'm a professional in the Loss Control industry. It's scary how many people want to say "Well, we don't know if it is a hazard yet, so let's not let that slow us down! If it's a hazard we'll fix it after!"

As far as nanoscale materials go, many of them are rather horrific. Turns out that gold, one of the least reactive metals, at nano-scale particles start to bind and do all sorts of nasty things within the body. Nothing like heavy metal salts to make your day, mm-mm!

And yes, many proposed nano-scale materials present threats to the health of the respiratory system equivalent to or beyond asbestos. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson has some great views of health complications.