When Small Isn’t Beautiful

By Gyorgy Srinis

The hype surrounding nanotechnology obscures significant health and safety issues.

Unions made various submission to last years Senate Inquiry into Workplace Exposure to Toxic Dust. The significance of nanotechnology to workplace health and safety issues lies in the manufacture of nanoparticles, nanofabrication and molecular manufacturing techniques, and the field of nanobiotechnology. Nanoproduction includes the breaking down of larger scale chemical compounds and materials into nano-scale particles, as well as the manufacture of distinctly new materials. They are already incorporated into a wide range of commercial products, including cosmetics, car tyres, building materials and silicon chips. We can soon expect them to be used widely in food and pharmaceutical products.

Nanoparticle toxicity is the area that bears upon worker health and consumer health. The size of nanoparticles, their high reactivity and the new properties they contain are a possible source of health and environmental hazard. They have many possible pathways for entering the body such as through inhalation, digestion and skin exposure. They may be able to penetrate the skin and pass into the bloodstream, penetrate cells, bypass immune responses, lodge in the lungs and cross the blood-brain barrier.

Your sunscreen may be a point of entry.

(Arena Magazine; no. 83, June-July 2006; pp38-40)