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Research advances on nanotech workplace health and safety
January 18, 2007But more study needed to ensure worker protection
WASHINGTON—"Companies, workers and investors alike are being challenged by the uncertainties surrounding nanotechnology workplace safety. These uncertainties include lack of sound, scientific information on occupational risks, poorly determined perceptual risks, and hesitancy over nanotechnology oversight," according to co-authors Andrew Maynard and David Y.H. Pui in an article in the latest issue of the Journal of Nanoparticle Research. This is a special journal issue devoted to nanoparticles and occupational health.
"Workers are society's canaries-in-the-coal mines when it comes to the environmental, health and safety effects of new materials—and nanoscale materials are no different," said Maynard, chief scientist of the Woodrow Wilson Center's Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies.
"The good news is that international concern over how to ensure safe nanotech workplaces has resulted in some progress. The bad news is that critical questions about worker safety—and about broader environmental, human health and safety issues—remain unanswered," stated Maynard.
Areas of specific progress that Maynard and the University of Minnesota's Pui highlight in their article include new instrumentation capable of better measurement of airborne nanostructured particles, innovative ways of controlling exposure to airborne nanoparticles, and the effectiveness of filters in removing nanometer-diameter particles from the air. Reports on these advances are included in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research special issue published in January 2007 by Springer (Mihail C. Roco, Editor-in-Chief; Andrew Maynard and David Y.H. Pui, Guest Editors). See: http://www.springerlink.com/content/p13817kll818/.
Nanotechnology is the ability to measure, see, manipulate and manufacture things usually between 1 and 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; a human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers wide.
In less than a decade, nanotechnology is predicted to result in $2.6 trillion in manufactured goods annually. Already, there are almost 400 manufacturer-identified nanotechnology-based consumer products on the market—ranging from computer chips to automobile parts and from clothing to cosmetics and dietary supplements. See: www.nanotechproject.org/consumerproducts. Lux Research estimates the number of jobs involved in making nano-enabled products will rise from about 50,000 today to more than 10 million in 2014.
"Little is known about potential risks in many areas of nanotechnology—and funding for risk-focused research is a small fraction of the nearly $10 billion spent annually by governments and industry on nanotechnology commercial applications. Greater resources and attention are needed now on nanotechnology occupational health and safety research in order to ensure safe nano-workplaces today and in the future," said Maynard.
Andrew Maynard is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of aerosol characterization and the implications of nanotechnology to human health and the environment. Before he joined the Wilson Center in 2005, Dr. Maynard worked at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he was instrumental in developing NIOSH's nanotechnology research program.
Dr. David Y.H. Pui is a well-known researcher and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota's Department of Mechanical Engineering. Pui has approximately 250 publications in the field of aerosol science and technology, including studies on nanoparticle production, measurement, and filtration.
Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies
"The good news is that international concern over how to ensure safe nanotech workplaces has resulted in some progress. The bad news is that critical questions about worker safety—and about broader environmental, human health and safety issues—remain unanswered," stated Maynard.
Areas of specific progress that Maynard and the University of Minnesota's Pui highlight in their article include new instrumentation capable of better measurement of airborne nanostructured particles, innovative ways of controlling exposure to airborne nanoparticles, and the effectiveness of filters in removing nanometer-diameter particles from the air. Reports on these advances are included in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research special issue published in January 2007 by Springer (Mihail C. Roco, Editor-in-Chief; Andrew Maynard and David Y.H. Pui, Guest Editors). See: http://www.springerlink.com/content/p13817kll818/.
Nanotechnology is the ability to measure, see, manipulate and manufacture things usually between 1 and 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; a human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers wide.
In less than a decade, nanotechnology is predicted to result in $2.6 trillion in manufactured goods annually. Already, there are almost 400 manufacturer-identified nanotechnology-based consumer products on the market—ranging from computer chips to automobile parts and from clothing to cosmetics and dietary supplements. See: www.nanotechproject.org/consumerproducts. Lux Research estimates the number of jobs involved in making nano-enabled products will rise from about 50,000 today to more than 10 million in 2014.
"Little is known about potential risks in many areas of nanotechnology—and funding for risk-focused research is a small fraction of the nearly $10 billion spent annually by governments and industry on nanotechnology commercial applications. Greater resources and attention are needed now on nanotechnology occupational health and safety research in order to ensure safe nano-workplaces today and in the future," said Maynard.
Andrew Maynard is an internationally recognized leader in the fields of aerosol characterization and the implications of nanotechnology to human health and the environment. Before he joined the Wilson Center in 2005, Dr. Maynard worked at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), part of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), where he was instrumental in developing NIOSH's nanotechnology research program.
Dr. David Y.H. Pui is a well-known researcher and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota's Department of Mechanical Engineering. Pui has approximately 250 publications in the field of aerosol science and technology, including studies on nanoparticle production, measurement, and filtration.
Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies
Nanotechnology Current Events and Nanotechnology News RSSNew study confirms exotic electric properties of graphene
First, it was the soccer-ball-shaped molecules dubbed buckyballs. Then it was the cylindrically shaped nanotubes. Now, the hottest new material in physics and nanotechnology is graphene: a remarkably flat molecule made of carbon atoms arranged in hexagonal rings much like molecular chicken wire.
Behavior modification could ease concerns about nanoparticles
In an advance that could help ease health and environmental concerns about the emerging nanotechnology industry, scientists are reporting development of technology for changing the behavior of nanoparticles in municipal sewage treatment plants - their main gateway into the environment.
UT Knoxville and ORNL researchers turn algae into high-temperature hydrogen source
In the quest to make hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel source, researchers have been stymied about how to create usable hydrogen that is clean and sustainable without relying on an intensive, high-energy process that outweighs the benefits of not using petroleum to power vehicles.
Caltech scientists develop DNA origami nanoscale breadboards for carbon nanotube circuits
In work that someday may lead to the development of novel types of nanoscale electronic devices, an interdisciplinary team of researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has combined DNA's talent for self-assembly with the remarkable electronic properties of carbon nanotubes, thereby suggesting a solution to the long-standing problem of organizing carbon nanotubes into nanoscale electronic circuits.
New 'finFET' promising for smaller transistors, more powerful chips
Purdue University researchers are making progress in developing a new type of transistor that uses a finlike structure instead of the conventional flat design, possibly enabling engineers to create faster and more compact circuits and computer chips.
Findings show nanomedicine promising for treating spinal cord injuries
Researchers at Purdue University have discovered a new approach for repairing damaged nerve fibers in spinal cord injuries using nano-spheres that could be injected into the blood shortly after an accident.
Magnetic nanoparticles to simultaneously diagnose, monitor and treat
Whether it's magnetic nanoparticles (mNPs) giving an army of 'therapeutically armed' white blood cells direction to invade a deadly tumour's territory, or the use of mNPs to target specific nerve channels and induce nerve-led behaviour (such as the life-dependant thumping of our hearts), mNPs have come a long way in the past decade.
Breakthrough in industrial-scale nanotube processing
Rice University scientists today unveiled a method for the industrial-scale processing of pure carbon-nanotube fibers that could lead to revolutionary advances in materials science, power distribution and nanoelectronics.
An exquisite container
In campy old movies, Lucretia Borgia swans around emptying powder from her ring into wine glasses carelessly left unattended. The poison ring is usually a confection of gold filigree holding a cabochon or faceted gemstone that can be broken to empty the ring's contents. It is invariably enormous - so large it is rather odd nobody seems to notice it.
University of Cincinnati researchers create all-electric spintronics
A multidisciplinary team of UC researchers is the first to find an innovative and novel way to control an electron's spin orientation using purely electrical means.
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