SAFENANO Community

From 2020science.org:Introducing MINChar—a new community initiative to support effective material characterization in nanotoxicity studies. Here’s a tough one:  Imagine you have a new substance—call it substance X—and you run some tests to see how toxic it is.  But you’re not quite sure what substance X is. You know that it is a ...

An article on the potential health risks of nanosilver published in 'The Scotsman' newspaper has prompted fresh debate in this controversial area. The article, published in Sunday's issue of The Scotsman, attempts to examine exactly how safe use of as-yet unregulated colloidal nanosilver products really is, features commentary from all sides of ...

If you evaluate the toxicity of an engineered nanomaterial, how far can you trust your results?  If someone else repeats your tests and gets a different answer, did they do it wrong? Did you?  Or was the material used different in some subtle but nevertheless important way?  These are questions that have dogged nanotoxicologists ...

Into the babble of conflicting and confusing terms surrounding nanotechnology, let me introduce another one: “wysinwig nanoparticles”—what-you-see-is-NOT-what-you-get nanoparticles.  It describes particles that have an annoying habit of revealing their true identity only after they have been painstakingly measured, monitored and ...

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 ...

Events over the last couple of weeks have confirmed the view that nanotechnology risk issues are moving sharply up the political agenda in the UK at least.   Firstly,  on the 21st February we had a statement in the House of Commons from Ian Pearson, Minister of State (Minister for Science and Innovation) in the Department for ...

The British Standards Institute today published the first publicly available extensive guide to safe handling of nanomaterials.  PD 6699-2:2007 Nanotechnologies – Part 2: Guide to safe handling and disposal of manufactured nanomaterials provides step-by-step guidance through the general approach to management of risks, information needs, ...

We are now fast approaching the end of 2007. Overall, when I reflect on the year is clear that things are happening. Many initiatives have begun or are moving forward, more research groups are active, more information concerning the toxicity of various types on nanomaterials is emerging on a case by case basis, and guidance is developing. But if I ...

When it comes to addressing the potential risks of engineered nanomaterials, no-one can accuse the UK Government of not having a plan. Today’s publication of the report “Characterizing the potential risks posed by engineered nanoparticles.  A second UK Government research report” demonstrates a commitment to identifying and addressing key ...

I have on my desk a plastic bag of carbon nanotubes—2 grams of dry, 60% purity single walled carbon nanotubes to be precise—bought from Cheap Tubes Inc. for the princely sum of $80.  And I am wondering what to do with them.  Despite the cosy assurances of the Manufacturers Safety Data Sheet that these are no more harmful than pencil ...