Sotiriou Georgios A, Singh Dilpreet, Zhang Fang, Wohlleben Wendel, Chalbot Marie-Cecile G, Kavouras Ilias G, Demokritou Philip
Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology, Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Harvard University, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Center for Nanotechnology and Nanotoxicology, Department of Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Harvard University, 665 Huntington Ave., Boston, MA 02115, USA ; BASF SE, Material Physics, 67056 Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Environ Sci Nano. 2015 Jun 1;2(3):262-272. doi: 10.1039/C4EN00210E.
The proliferation of nano-enabled products (NEPs) renders human exposure to engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) inevitable. Over the last decade, the risk assessment paradigm for nanomaterials focused primarily on potential adverse effect of pristine, as-prepared ENMs. However, the physicochemical properties of ENMs may be drastically altered across their life-cycle (LC), especially when they are embedded in various NEP matrices. Of a particular interest is the end-of-life scenario by thermal decomposition. The main objective of the current study is to develop a standardized, versatile and reproducible methodology that allows for the systematic physicochemical and toxicological characterization of the NEP thermal decomposition. The developed methodology was tested for an industry-relevant NEP in order to verify its versatility for such LC investigations. Results are indicative of potential environmental health risks associated with waste from specific NEP families and prompt for the development of safer-by-design approaches and exposure control strategies.
纳米功能产品（NEPs）的激增使得人类不可避免地接触到工程纳米材料（ENMs）。在过去十年中，纳米材料的风险评估范式主要集中在原始制备的ENMs的潜在不利影响上。然而，ENMs的物理化学性质在其生命周期（LC）中可能会发生巨大变化，尤其是当它们嵌入各种NEP基质中时。特别令人感兴趣的是热分解的生命周期结束场景。本研究的主要目的是开发一种标准化、通用且可重复的方法，该方法能够对NEP热分解进行系统的物理化学和毒理学表征。为了验证其在此类LC研究中的通用性，对一种与行业相关的NEP测试了所开发的方法。结果表明特定NEP家族的废物可能存在环境健康风险，并促使开发设计更安全的方法和暴露控制策略。
