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Looking for a nano-needle in an environmental haystack
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While some researchers are devoting time to finding diagnostic and therapeutic uses for nanotechnology, there's another faction observing the potential ways they can harm health and the environment. Both aspects are important to consider as science moves forward with this emerging new technology.
Today, at noon on the Johns Hopkins University Homewood campus, Bernd Nowack from the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research St. Gallen, Switzerland, will present the talk "Nano and Environment: Where to look for the nano-needle in the environmental haystack?" The lecture will be given in the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering in 234 Ames Hall. This is a Whiting School of Engineering event.
Nowack will discuss the behavior and the effects of nanomaterials in the environment such as titanium dioxide, nano silver, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, and zinc oxide. A modeling method called predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) was used to calculate the presence of these substances in various environments, including air, soil, water and sediments.
Nowack will discuss the potential risks of having these substances in the environment and will talk about other studies going forward, such as analysis of nanogold particles. Nanogold is frequently used in medical applications of nanotechnology. According to a release about this talk, Nowack's work "makes it possible for the first time to carry out a quantitative risk assessment of nanomaterials in the environment."
Nanotechnology is finding its way into more and more consumer products, from clothing to cosmetics to housepaints. Medical applicatons of nanoscale materials has great potential to help treat and diagnose human disease. It will be interesting to see how the risks and the benefits of these matierals will grow up together. I plan to attend this talk and will comment later on Nowack's actual lecture.
For more information on nanotechnology: Institute for NanoBioTechnology; NanoDays
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