Lorenz Christiane, Tiede Karen, Tear Steven, Boxall Alistair, Von Goetz Natalie, Hungerbühler Konrad
Safety and Environmental Technology Group, Zürich, Switzerland.
Int J Occup Environ Health. 2010 Oct-Dec;16(4):406-28. doi: 10.1179/107735210799160101.
There is increasing concern over the risks of nanoparticles to humans and the environment, but little is known about the properties of the nanoparticulate mineral filters, such as titanium dioxide and zinc oxide, in sunscreens. There is an urgent need to develop methods for characterizing nanoparticles in (NPs) such products to provide data for human and environmental risk assessments. This study explored three methods (transmission electron microscopy [TEM], conventional scanning electron microscopy [SEM], and wet-scanning electron microscopy [WetSEM]) for characterizing NPs in sunscreens. Our results showed that these products contained titanium dioxide and zinc oxide particles in the nanometer range; thus, it is likely that consumers and the environment are exposed to engineered NPs through the use of these products. Further, we found that the combination of all three microscopy methods provided the most comprehensive information on size-related properties, which are crucial parameters for risk assessment of NPs in wet matrices.
人们越来越关注纳米颗粒对人类和环境的风险，但对于防晒霜中纳米颗粒矿物过滤器（如二氧化钛和氧化锌）的特性却知之甚少。迫切需要开发用于表征此类产品中纳米颗粒（NPs）的方法，以便为人类和环境风险评估提供数据。本研究探索了三种用于表征防晒霜中纳米颗粒的方法（透射电子显微镜 [TEM]、传统扫描电子显微镜 [SEM] 和湿扫描电子显微镜 [WetSEM]）。我们的结果表明，这些产品含有纳米级的二氧化钛和氧化锌颗粒；因此，消费者和环境很可能通过使用这些产品接触到工程纳米颗粒。此外，我们发现这三种显微镜方法相结合可提供有关尺寸相关特性的最全面信息，而这些特性是评估湿基质中纳米颗粒风险的关键参数。
