Another example of the scramble to measure and control the nano experiments being trialed now on our planet.
Review article calls for measures to enable safe design of nanomaterials
By Jennifer Marcus
6/19/2009 9:55:00 AM
"The recent explosion in the development of nanomaterials with enhanced performance characteristics for use in commercial and medical applications has increased the likelihood of people coming into direct contact with these materials.
There are currently more than 800 products on the market — including clothes, skin lotions and cleaning products — claiming to have at least one nanocomponent, and therapeutic nanocarriers have been designed for targeted drug delivery inside the human body. Human exposure to nanomaterials, which are smaller than one one-thousandth the diameter of a human hair, raises some important questions, including whether these "nano-bio" interactions could have adverse health effects.
Now, researchers at UCLA and the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), along with colleagues in academia and industry, have taken a proactive role in examining the current understanding of the nano-bio interface to identify the potential risks of engineered nanomaterials and to explore design methods that will lead to safer and more effective nanoparticles for use in a variety of treatments and products".
Read more of the review which acknowledges that: "relatively little is known about the intracellular activity and function of engineered nanomaterials" and its time to stop "waiting for for knowledge to unfold randomly".
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