28 September 2009:
The widespread and growing use of nanoparticles is causing a new
form of uncontrollable and unregulated pollution that has the
potential to harm the environment, a leading scientist will warn
the CleanUp 09 conference in Adelaide today.
Nanoparticles’ extremely small size – only
billionths of a metre – makes them ideal for use in a growing
range of industries and products, but it also allows them to escape
through filters and into our rivers, oceans and even to penetrate
our bodies.
Dr Tomas Vanek from the Laboratory of Plant Biotechnologies in
the Czech Republic will talk about how important it is to
understand the damage that this ‘nanopollution’ can
cause and the urgent need to control it.
Body creams and toothpastes increasingly contain nanoparticles,
as do a range of commercial products and a variety of materials.
Nanoparticles are also used in industrial processes, and this range
of applications allows them to be exposed to the environment
through many different pathways, according to Dr Vanek.
“Nanoparticles often end up washed down the drain where they
can pass through sewage treatment plant filters and into our oceans
and rivers, potentially contaminating our food and water supplies.
Nanomaterial can also be applied directly to ecosystems in order to
clean up other unwanted pollutants”, he said.
“The use of these tiny particles of metal and chemicals is
quite new and we still don’t know whether they’re
dangerous and how, or if, we can clean them up.”
He says the world needs to urgently begin preparing to regulate
and, if necessary, restrict the widespread use of
nanomaterials.
“In the past we used many chemicals in agriculture and
industry, only to find out afterwards they were damaging to human
health and the environment. We do not want to make the same
mistake with nanotechnologies – releasing unknown materials
that turn out to be toxic and then finding they are difficult or
even impossible to recall or make safe,” said Dr Vanek.
Dr Vanek and his team are one of the first groups in the world to
show that ‘nanopollution’ can harm plants.
They tested commonly used nanoparticles - titanium dioxide, zinc
peroxide, aluminium oxide, fullerenes and carbon graphite fibres -
on tobacco plant cells and found that at varying levels the
molecules were toxic to the plant.
“This is a new area of research and much more study is
required, but we need to understand whether nanoparticles are
dangerous to the environment that we can create guidelines to
safely use them,” said Dr Vanek.
Dr Vanek believes a lot more research also needs to go into ways
to remediate ‘nanopollution’, in order to safely and
sustainably manage the technology.
“If we are going to keep using nanoparticles we need to know
whether we’re putting ourselves and the environment in
danger, and if so, how to minimise it,” said Dr Vanek.
Dr Tomas Vanek will deliver his paper at 11.20 AM on Monday
September 28, 2009.
The CleanUp 09 conference is being hosdted by the CRC for
Contamination Assessment and Remediation of the Environment at the
Hilton Hotel, Adelaide from September 28-30.
More information:
Dr Tomas Vanek, Laboratory of Plant Biotechnologies, Joint
Laboratory of Institute of Experimental Botany and Research
Institute of Crop Production, Czech Republic, ph + 42 060 343
437.
Professor Ravi Naidu, CRC CARE, 0407 720 257
Peter Martin, CRC CARE communication, 0429 779 228
Peter.martin@crccare.com
Conference number: 08 8217 2000 and ask for CleanUp 09
