Ostrowski Alexis D, Martin Tyronne, Conti Joseph, Hurt Indy, Harthorn Barbara Herr
J Nanopart Res. 2009 Feb;11(2):251-257. doi: 10.1007/s11051-008-9579-5. Epub 2008 Dec 28.
Understanding the toxicity of nanomaterials and nano-enabled products is important for human and environmental health and safety as well as public acceptance. Assessing the state of knowledge about nanotoxicology is an important step in promoting comprehensive understanding of the health and environmental implications of these new materials. To this end, we employed bibliometric techniques to characterize the prevalence and distribution of the current scientific literature. We found that the nano-toxicological literature is dispersed across a range of disciplines and sub-fields; focused on in vitro testing; often does not specify an exposure pathway; and tends to emphasize acute toxicity and mortality rather than chronic exposure and morbidity. Finally, there is very little research on consumer products, particularly on their environmental fate, and most research is on the toxicity of basic nanomaterials. The implications for toxicologists, regulators and social scientists studying nanotechnology and society are discussed.
了解纳米材料及含纳米材料产品的毒性对于人类健康、环境健康与安全以及公众接受度而言至关重要。评估纳米毒理学的知识现状是促进全面理解这些新材料对健康和环境影响的重要一步。为此，我们采用文献计量技术来描述当前科学文献的流行程度和分布情况。我们发现，纳米毒理学文献分散在一系列学科和子领域中；侧重于体外测试；通常未明确暴露途径；并且倾向于强调急性毒性和死亡率，而非慢性暴露和发病率。最后，关于消费品的研究非常少，尤其是其环境归宿方面，且大多数研究是关于基础纳米材料的毒性。本文还讨论了对研究纳米技术与社会的毒理学家、监管机构和社会科学家的启示。
