Review of Nanotechnology Safety

1. Review of Nanotechnology Safety SK Dua & J. Mwaisela-Rose Risk Management & Environmental Health & Safety Florida International University

2. Nanotechnology • Nanotechnology is the control of matter at the nano scale to produce new materials, structures, and devices. • Multidisciplinary field, involving physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, and medicine. • 2015, nanotechnology-related products predicted to reach $1 Trillion and employ 1 Million workers in US alone. • Workers likely to have occupational exposures. • Nanotechnology will change the nature of almost every human-made object.

3. Beneficial Applications • Medicine • Electronics • Energy Production & Conservation • National Defense & Security • Leisure & Entertainment

4. Presentation Outline • Basic introduction and overview: • Potential beneficial applications of Nanotechnology • Potential risks for the exploitation of the technology • Occupational Safety issues and considerations in the application of nanotechnoloty

5. Applications (Medical) • Nanophotonics Medical Applications: • Organ tagging with nanoparticles May enhance basic understanding of the behavior of protein membranes. • May allow body temperature adjustment to help with laser therapy, radiation or ultrasound treatment. • Nanoparticles can be bound them to specific organ tissues to provide image contrasting. • Suitable nanoparticles injected at a tumor site may allow treatment monitoring and administeration.

6. Applications (Medical)… • Nanoparticles can be targeted to tumors. • Dr. Lon Wilson, at Rice University demonstrated that ultrashort carbon nanotubes will permanently entrap At-211. • Nanoparticles, can target magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear imaging, CT scanning and ultrasound imaging. Thus, giving far more complete view of tumor biology

7. Applications (Medical)… • Segmented magnetic iron oxide “nanoworms” and coated with a polymer can find and attach to tumors • Using nanoworms, doctors may eventually reveal tumors that are too small to detect by conventional methods. • May carry payloads targeted to specific tumors,

8. Applications (Medical)… • Nano-bio-chips like this one made of silicon (in blue) can be used to test saliva for characteristics of heart disease. The device is the size of a credit card and can produce results in as little as 15 minutes. The round objects in back are nano-bio-chips microfabricated from sheets stainless steel, making them about 100 times cheaper than silicon.

9. Applications… • The new armor material. • Medicines as nanoparticles Dental-bonding agents • Vastly improved lasers and magnetic disk heads made by controlling layer thickness to better than a nanometer. • Sunscreens, cosmetics • Tires, automotive catalyst supports, ectroconductive coatings and optical fibers. • Explosives detection devices

10. Applications… • Chemical and bio-detectors • New generation of lasers • Nanostructured catalysts. • Nanoparticle reinforced materials • Molecular sieves • High hardness cutting tools • A new generation of ignition interlocking devices, • Cheap, high-output solar cells in lead selenide (PbSe) nanocrystals by avalanche effect.

11. Applications… • Carbon nanotubes promise to replace metal entirely in future automobiles, mobile electronics, and other products • Cleaner, dryer, durable products – paints, stain and wrinkle free clothing and scratch free car wax, eyewear and other optical devices. • Electronics • Biotech -Bandages embedded with silver nanoparticles, drug delivery patch, man-made skin.

12. Applications… • Nano-electromechanical sensors identify a chemical warfare agent. • Nanocomposite energetic materials with more than twice the energy output of typical high explosives. • Highly efficient materials (carbon nanotubes packed with gold and surrounded by lithium hydride) convert nuclear radiation directly into electricity • Iron nanoparticles that can remove up to 96 percent of a major contaminant from groundwater at an industrial site.

13. Potential Safety Concerns • Fire and explosion risk- nanoscale powders, nanoscale combustible material could present a higher risk than coarser material with a similar mass concentration. • Catalytic reactions - Some nanomaterials may initiate depending on their composition and structure • However, processes generating nanomaterials in the gas phase, or using or producing powders or slurries/ suspensions/ solutions, or that disturb deposited nanomaterial pose the greatest risk for releasing nanoparticles.

14. Exposure Assessment and Characterization • Many sampling techniques that are available for measuring airborne nanoaerosols vary in complexity but can provide useful information for evaluating occupational exposures with respect to: • particle size, • mass, • surface area, • number concentration, • composition, and • surface properties

15. Conclusions • Some studies on the EHS effects of nanotechnology appear to indicate that NP have the potential to be unsafe. • Nanotechnology may also offer many benefits for human health and the environment.

16. Conclusions • An emerging body of studies reveals that we are simply uncertain of effects, • ESH concerns are lagging far behind application research. • However, it would not be prudent to completely halt nanotech development on EHS grounds, since nanotechnologies may prove extremely beneficial to both the environment and human health in the long term.