Iavicoli Ivo, Leso Veruscka, Ricciardi Walter, Hodson Laura L, Hoover Mark D
Institute of Public Health, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Largo Francesco Vito 1, 00168 Rome, Italy.
Environ Health. 2014 Oct 7;13:78. doi: 10.1186/1476-069X-13-78.
In a world of finite resources and ecosystem capacity, the prevailing model of economic growth, founded on ever-increasing consumption of resources and emission pollutants, cannot be sustained any longer. In this context, the "green economy" concept has offered the opportunity to change the way that society manages the interaction of the environmental and economic domains. To enable society to build and sustain a green economy, the associated concept of "green nanotechnology" aims to exploit nano-innovations in materials science and engineering to generate products and processes that are energy efficient as well as economically and environmentally sustainable. These applications are expected to impact a large range of economic sectors, such as energy production and storage, clean up-technologies, as well as construction and related infrastructure industries. These solutions may offer the opportunities to reduce pressure on raw materials trading on renewable energy, to improve power delivery systems to be more reliable, efficient and safe as well as to use unconventional water sources or nano-enabled construction products therefore providing better ecosystem and livelihood conditions.However, the benefits of incorporating nanomaterials in green products and processes may bring challenges with them for environmental, health and safety risks, ethical and social issues, as well as uncertainty concerning market and consumer acceptance. Therefore, our aim is to examine the relationships among guiding principles for a green economy and opportunities for introducing nano-applications in this field as well as to critically analyze their practical challenges, especially related to the impact that they may have on the health and safety of workers involved in this innovative sector. These are principally due to the not fully known nanomaterial hazardous properties, as well as to the difficulties in characterizing exposure and defining emerging risks for the workforce. Interestingly, this review proposes action strategies for the assessment, management and communication of risks aimed to precautionary adopt preventive measures including formation and training of employees, collective and personal protective equipment, health surveillance programs to protect the health and safety of nano-workers. It finally underlines the importance that occupational health considerations will have on achieving an effectively sustainable development of nanotechnology.
在一个资源和生态系统容量有限的世界里，建立在资源消耗和污染物排放不断增加基础上的主流经济增长模式已无法持续。在此背景下，“绿色经济”概念为改变社会管理环境与经济领域互动的方式提供了契机。为使社会能够建立并维持绿色经济，“绿色纳米技术”这一相关概念旨在利用材料科学与工程领域的纳米创新成果，开发出节能且在经济和环境方面具有可持续性的产品及工艺。这些应用有望影响众多经济领域，如能源生产与存储、清洁技术以及建筑和相关基础设施行业。这些解决方案可能提供机会，减轻可再生能源原材料交易压力，改善电力输送系统，使其更可靠、高效和安全，以及利用非常规水源或纳米建筑产品，从而提供更好的生态系统和生活条件。然而，将纳米材料纳入绿色产品和工艺所带来的好处，可能伴随着环境、健康和安全风险、伦理和社会问题，以及市场和消费者接受度方面的不确定性等挑战。因此，我们的目标是研究绿色经济指导原则与该领域引入纳米应用机会之间的关系，并批判性地分析其实际挑战，特别是与它们可能对参与这一创新领域的工人健康和安全产生的影响相关的挑战。这些挑战主要源于纳米材料的危险特性尚未完全明确，以及在确定接触情况和界定劳动力面临的新风险方面存在困难。有趣的是，本综述提出了针对风险评估、管理和沟通的行动策略，旨在预防性地采取预防措施，包括员工的组建和培训、集体和个人防护设备、健康监测计划，以保护纳米技术工人的健康和安全。最后，它强调了职业健康考量对于实现纳米技术有效可持续发展的重要性。
