The good and the bad - in the very tiny

Nanoparticles may be a boon to mankind and are common in products - yet little is known about their effects on humans and the environmentBy Emma Philpott...

Nanoparticles are a description for very small particles that are less than 100 nanometres in size. This is about the same size as a virus or the size of a kink in a DNA chain. Very, very, small indeed. Scientists are excited because, at these kinds of sizes, materials often begin to behave differently. Many of the ways we assume particles should behave, and are taught about in physics and biology lessons at school, simply do not occur at these sizes…

However, unfortunately, there is a flip side to these miraculous properties. As people get more excited about the properties of nanoparticles, markets open up, companies are set up and people get keen to make money. More and more nanoparticles are in consumer products now: nanosilver in washing machines, fullerenes (special nanoparticles of carbon) in face creams, nanotitanium-dioxide in sunscreen, and there are tonnes and tonnes of nanoiron particles being pumped into contaminated ground in the United States. All this is happening. Meanwhile, science and research is way behind the enthusiasm of business, and is desperately trying to catch up. Many research groups across the world are just starting to look at what effects these nanoparticles will have on the human body and the environment. Some scientists have found that it is probably less important what the particles are actually made of and more important to know what their surface area is.

The Straits Times (30 June 2007)