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Graphene Could Be Dangerous To Humans and the Environment

Posted by samzenpus on from the keep-out-of-eyes-and-mouth dept.

Zothecula (1870348) writes "It's easy to get carried away when you start talking about graphene. Its properties hold the promise of outright technological revolution in so many fields that it has been called a wonder material. Two recent studies, however, give us a less than rosy angle. In the first, a team of biologists, engineers and material scientists at Brown University examined graphene's potential toxicity in human cells. Another study by a team from University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering examined how graphene oxide nanoparticles might interact with the environment if they found their way into surface or ground water sources."

4 of 135 comments (clear)

  1. Wonder material by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A wonder material that turns out to be extremely dangerous?

    You don't say? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asbestos

  2. This time will be different! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The biological properties of lead were very well known.
    Didn't keep people from adding it to fuel and blowing it out of the tail pipes of virtually every car for a couple of decades.
    This time it's nano materials.
    The only thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history.

    1. Re:This time will be different! by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Begging your pardon, but isn't the fact that graphene is being studied for low-level toxicity and environmental impacts before it's in actual use evidence that we have, in fact, learned from history?

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
  3. Order of Magnitude? by AlecC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It is hardly surprising that graphene can, in some circumstances, be dangerous. Exhaust particulates, which he have known for years are dangerous, contain (now we know what we are looking for) large numbers of graphene nanoparticles, which may well contribute to their damaging effects. Just about every chemical ever tested has bad effects at some scale. What I didn't get from either article was any sense of the scale of the danger. Obviously, it is early days in the research, and one would only expect an order of magnitude estimate. But is is such a danger that we should not allow graphene products into the home lest they spill, or merely one which demands normal safety precautions in the factories for future graphene products? A warning of danger without some idea of the scale of the problem is just sensationalist: it induces fear without giving any idea as to what should be done, if anything,

    --
    Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.