SAFENANO Community

[From 2020Science] The Environmental Working Group (EWG) – a US-based non-profit organization committed to using public information to protect public health and the environment – has just released what is probably the most comprehensive evaluation to date of the safety and effectiveness of using titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles in ...

From 2020science.org:UK Consumer Organization Which? Releases New Report Who needs an emerging technologies blog when you have The Daily Mail?  For those of you that missed it, Wednesday’s on-line issue of the British tabloid newspaper highlighted “The beauty creams with nanoparticles that could poison your body” I’m so glad someone’s ...

How cool is this: A nanotech-enabled labcoat to protect the user against… well, nanomaterials presumably, amongst other things!  The labcoat—which uses Nanotex technology to make it stain resistant—is part of a major update to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies Consumer Products Inventory that tracks manufacture-identified ...

Time for a nano-break.  I’ll be taking a break from the SafeNano blog over the next three weeks, as my family try to convince me there really is life beyond nanotechnology (I’m sceptical).  In the meantime, I couldn’t resist giving loyal readers something to think about in my absence:When was the first intentionally engineered nanoscale ...

Last December I highlighted the case of Benny the Bear—a soft toy using nano-silver to give it antimicrobial properties (Benny the Bear, and the case of the disappearing nanoparticles). It appeared at the time that the manufacturer was being rather coy about the use of nanotechnology, leading to me suggesting: “perhaps it’s time for Benny to come ...

Mix carbon nanotubes and asbestos together (metaphorically) and you get an explosive mix—at least if news coverage of the latest publication coming out of Professor Ken Donaldson’s team is anything to go by.  The research—published on-line today in Nature Nanotechnology—is the first to explicitly test the hypothesis that long carbon nanotubes ...

(Added Oct 24 2008: This article is also available at 2020science.org) If you want proof that nano is mainstream, just pick up the U.S. May edition of fashion magazine “Elle.”   Sharing cover-space with Madonna is the latest article on nanotech and the beauty business.Elle might not be your first choice of reading for cutting edge ...

Labelling – is there anything more contentious in the safe nanotech debate?  Some are fearful that too much knowledge will confuse and worry muddle-headed consumers.  Others can only see the marketing opportunities of a “nano-inside” label. Then you have the nano-doomsday merchants, who seemingly would like nothing better than to slap a ...

It’s been a long slog, but the end of 2007 is in sight.  A year of endless meetings, papers by the bunch, and more frequent flyer miles than any sane person should rack up (got to get that Carbon footprint under control). But did this all add up to progress on the safe nano front?  Here’s my personal and admittedly subjective round-up of ...

So you’ve developed an obsessive nano-silver Benny the Bear paw-chewing habit, and on the advice of your hairdresser, you’re quaffing silver nanoparticle suspensions by the pint.  What do you get?  Well, according to a story airing on CNN this week, what you get is… blue skin!According to the article, Paul Karason started the transition ...