Nanotechnology is now used in several fields such as medicine, industry, environment, and cosmetics. According to Stuart Burchill, certainly, it provides certain advantages but also has disadvantages. Nanotechnology makes it possible, for example, to treat certain diseases, but can also cause side effects.
Discover some advantages and disadvantages of Nanotechnology.
The Advantages of Nanotechnology
In nanotechnology: advantages, we can cite a few essential points.
Through its great revolution, we note that nanotechnology makes it possible to solve certain problems in several fields.
- In the industrial sector, for example, nanotechnology is effective in the manufacture of tires, mobile devices and household appliances.
- In medicine, nanotechnology, through nanoscience, makes it possible to target and destroy cancer cells.
- In the environmental sector, nanotechnology products are used in remediation and decontamination actions.
- We can also cite, in nanotechnology: advantages, effective results of nanotechnology in cosmetics.
What are the Environmental Risks of Nanoparticles?
The diversity of data on the impact and on nanomaterials makes it impossible to draw conclusions on the environmental risks of certain nanomaterials.
Most of the information available concerns the aquatic environment and almost no information exists on the dangers of nanoparticles in soils and sediments. Increasing attention is being paid to the potential adverse effects of transformation products that are formed after introducing a nanomaterial into the environment.
Models that describe the release of nanoparticles, their distribution in the environment and the exposure of living organisms to them remain scarce, as do the data to validate these models. Progress is needed in the development of analytical tools and methods for determining and measuring nano-characteristics in complex media to obtain data on the presence of and exposure to nanomaterials.
According to Burchill, an environmental risk assessment of metallic zinc particles highlighted that the difference between affect levels and exposure levels was relatively large, such that no risk to organisms in Community waters was ‘is still anticipated. However, a similar assessment for nanosilver particles does not exclude the occurrence of adverse environmental effects.
Stuart Burchill tells all about the main knowledge gaps
Progress must be made in the following four areas:
- First, we seriously need data – i.e. specific data on nanomaterials and nanoparticles, but also information on the use of nanomaterials/particles in products and their release by these products.
- Second, we need to improve our scientific knowledge of nano-toxicological behavior to move forward on the road to generalization and abstraction.
- Third, we need to look not only at existing simple nanomaterials but also monitor and assess the development of new generations of nanomaterials.
- Fourth, we need to look at aspects of risk governance and how to deal with the difference in pace between nanomaterial innovations and our scientific and regulatory capacity to assess uncertainties and risks, and ways to deal with those risks. and potential uncertainties.
The government, society at large, the scientific community and businesses must work together to find ways to manage the innovative and fundamentally new development of materials and risks. This would strengthen the availability of data and mutual knowledge as Stuart suggests.
Overall, Stuart Burchill concluded that the current legislative framework covers, to a large extent, the potential risks relating to nanomaterials. However, it may be necessary to revise the current legislation in light of remaining gaps and new information, in particular with regard to threshold values.
