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Health assessment of Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is a promising future-proof technology. It is, therefore, important to detect possible risks at an early stage. BfR assesses nanomaterials or products containing the latter and takes position in the public debate. Whether nanomaterials involve unknown risks for consumers has not yet been finally clarified in scientific terms.

Nanotechnology is a collective term for a broad range of technologies on a nanometer scale which contribute towards researching, processing and producing structures and materials up to market maturity. By means of nanotechnology it is possible to develop structures, techniques and systems which present completely new properties and functions. Against the backdrop of the current and the expected future developments in nanotechnologies and their use in all areas of life, it has to be assumed that production volumes will increase and that there will hence be a more frequent release of many different nanomaterials.

What are nanomaterials?

Nanomaterials are subdivided on the one hand into three types of nanoobjects which are at least one dimension smaller than 100 nanometers (nm):

• Spherical structures (eg nanoparticles and fullerenes),
• Fibrous structures (eg nanotubes),
• Extremely thin layers (eg nanoplatelets),

and on the other hand into so-called nanostructured materials such as aggregates or composites which contain such nanoobjects.

Nanoparticles can be introduced into the ambient air from natural or artificial combustion sources as ultra fine dusts (eg volcano ash, cigarette smoke, exhaust gases) and develop unintentionally in working and production processes (eg welding fume).

Furthermore, nanomaterials are used in a targeted manner in many technical areas but also in consumer articles such as coatings or packaging materials (so-called ENM – engineered nanomaterials). Examples for selectively produced nanomaterials are nanosilver, carbon nanotubes, nano titanium dioxide or the so-called nanotone which are already processed in many consumer articles (cosmetics, textiles, packaging materials and composites).

The targeted manufacturing of nanomaterials exploits the favourable surface-to-volume ratio in this tiny dimension which provides these materials with special and novel properties. The trend in manufacturing moves increasingly away from a top down approach (eg grinding of a fine-particle starting material) to a bottom up strategy which partly allows the synthetic manufacturing or assembly of nanohybrids with desired properties.

These novel properties can, as a matter of principle, also have a detrimental impact on human health if released particles get into the body, with a very fine distribution and possible accumulation in different organs.

Risk assessment

The scientific risk assessment of BfR focuses on selectively manufactured nanomaterials. Whether these new nanomaterials or products containing such materials can involve unknown risks for consumers has not yet been definitively clarified in scientific terms. In a risk appraisal the dangerous properties on the one hand and the actual exposure on the other hand must be examined. This means that risks might result, more particularly, from nanoproducts in which dangerous nanomaterials occur in a non bound form or can be easily released from them.

Reasons for nanomaterials possibly involving risks are:

• The particular (physical–chemical) properties of a nanomaterial, eg large reactive (reaction promoting) surfaces;
• The special behaviour in the human body, eg a long retention time and the overcoming of natural biological barriers;
• The burdening to be expected from a release.

BfR also deals with the risk assessment of nanotechnological applications in many different consumer articles such as chemicals, foods and their packaging, cosmetic agents, articles of daily use but also pesticides and biocides.

Dialogue and research activities on nanotechnology

During the past years BfR has made a major contribution towards the debate about possible risks of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in the field of consumer protection. Several dialogue and research activities were initiated, including

• The first German consumer conference on the perception of nanotechnology in the field of foods, cosmetics and textiles
• Symposiums, workshops and information events such as the 6^th BfR Forum on Consumer Protection: Nanotechnology in the focus of consumer health protection
• A representative survey amongst the population on the perception of nanotechnology in Germany (2.3 MB)
• A joint research strategy on nanotechnology together with the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Federal Environmental Agency

BfR is also represented on many national, European and international bodies dealing with this topic such as the OECD Working Party on Manufactured Nanomaterials (WPMN) and the EFSA Scientific Network for Risk Assessment of Nanotechnologies in Food and Feed.

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