Attack of the Tiny Particles - be slightly afraid..

**christianj** · 12th-November-2008

This has always been a concern for me. Technology screaming ahead of proper safety and studied procedures..

It's a little off topic but heh! it's worth considering..

Attack of the Tiny Particles - be slightly afraid

• Report calls for more tests on 'wonder ingredient'
• Proliferation of nano materials could pose risk

Ian Sample, science correspondent

The government must begin a "major and urgent" effort to assess the safety of nanomaterials, the tiny particles commonly used in products as varied as sun creams, sports clothing and medicine, leading experts warn today.

Hundreds of consumer products made with nanoparticles, which can be 100 times smaller than a virus, are already on the market, despite an almost complete lack of knowledge of the dangers they may pose to human health and the environment, according to a report by the royal commission on environmental pollution.

Nanoparticles have been embraced as a wonder ingredient across manufacturing industry. Cosmetic companies add titanium dioxide nanoparticles to sun creams to make them transparent instead of white. Sports clothing firms have introduced odour-free garments containing nanosilver particles that are twice as toxic to bacteria as bleach. The motor industry has added carbon nanofibres to car tyres and body panels to strengthen them. Many nanomaterials are so poorly understood that scientists are unable to predict how they will behave, and are unclear even how to check their safety, the report says.

Sir John Lawton, who chairs the commission, said the lack of tests and environmental monitoring for nanoparticles meant it was impossible to know if the materials were already a cause for concern. "Would we know if nanomaterials were causing harm? The answer is, no we wouldn't. We have no evidence that they cause harm, but a lot of that is because of a lack of evidence," he said.

Professor Sir John Lawton on need to test nanotechnology
Link to this audio Industry figures estimate at least 600 products are already available globally that contain nanomaterials of some form, but that figure is expected to rise steeply.

The report warns that the proliferation of nanoparticles will see more of them released into the environment where they could be inhaled, discharged into water courses, and potentially introduced into the food chain with unknown consequences.

Lawton acknowledged nanoparticles were "exceedingly useful", but said there was "a major gap between the pace at which new nanomaterials are being developed and the generation of environmental health and safety data". Some scientists who gave evidence to the commission said it could be 20 years before sufficient safety measures were in place to monitor nanotechnology. "We don't want to be alarmist, but experience says the more we find out about this the better," said Lawton. "We're saying [to the government] get your finger out and get on and do something. This is really urgent."

Last week, the Royal Society expressed its dismay at the government's lack of action following its own report on nanotechnology in 2004, which also called for more stringent safety checks.

Nanoparticles lend their success to the extraordinary, and sometimes highly unusual, properties they have. For example, carbon nanotubes are incredibly strong, while pieces of graphite easily sheer apart. Nanoparticles of silver are significantly more toxic than lumps of the metal because the tiny particles have a huge surface area. The medical industry is investing heavily in nanoparticles to create precision drugs that can target specific tissues, such as cancer cells.

The report calls on government departments to back immediate research into toxicity tests for nanoparticles and the impact of nanomaterials in the environment.

The commission picks out three types of nanoparticle it says are of particular concern. Highly toxic nanosilver will inevitably get into the water supply when sports garments incorporating silver nanoparticles are washed. These could cause problems at sewage treatment works, which rely on beds of bacteria to purify water. Carbon nanofibres, which can be added to car tyres or woven into clothing to produce different colours without using dyes, are likely to be shed into the environment where they could be inhaled.

Finally, "buckyballs" - microscopic football-shaped cages of carbon - can be absorbed by simple organisms, according to the report, raising concerns that they could contaminate the food chain.

A spokesperson for Defra said: "As the commission states, it has found no evidence of harm to health or the environment from nanomaterials, but the government remains committed to researching their health and environmental impact."

Backstory

Eric Drexler, an American engineer sketched the scenario whereby nanomachines no bigger than molecules run amok, consuming the planet's resources and leaving nothing but grey goo, in his 1986 book Engines of Creation. He has now dismissed that view, but more realistic concerns remain. Nanotechnology encompasses any material suited to measurement in billionths of a metre, or nanometres: connections in a chip, fibres in a tennis racket, or particles absorbing UV light in suntan lotion. Nanoparticles behave unlike lumps of the same material - stronger, more toxic, and with radically different electrical properties. What makes them so useful also makes their safety so uncertain.

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**shaazam** · 12th-November-2008

the most potentially lethal particle known to man is the feminiticle

being the most powerful reducing agent known to man and once contaminated man feels an overwhelming sense of relaxation contentment and trust in the contaminant - his wimmin

however as the particle's adverse properties begin to work

( it paralyses his critical thinkin) the man is progressively reduced into a sniveling heap of indecision and hopelessness and despair as the feminiticle eats his mind from inside out

the feminiticle needs the man to be in a state of dereistic rapture before it can infect him

the state of enrapturing is called falling in love or a theatrical self delusion nurtured on the selective repression of facts or a suspension of disbelief or a triumph of his hope over his experience

in the final sage of this contagion man is a mere cypher totally in thrall of his feminit nemesis

bababob · 9th-July-2009

This is the subject of a petition on the http://www.care2.com website.
They are taking this seriously enough to protest formally.

**MikeT** · 29th-August-2009

Not hard to whip up hysteria is it?

The term Nano, refers to substances and concentrations to the power of 10 x -9.

Bearing in mind that most dangerous substances have the power of 10-2 or -3.

Heard of the term "parts per million"?, that is 10-6 (sorry I can't do exponents).

But this nano-technology is nothing harmful, this is "parts per billion".

These days there seems to be an under-current of pseudo-(junk) science out there, a lot of it is coming from the universities, mainly from professors that have never had to work a day of thier lives in the real world.
They always get their pay-check, they can say what they like.

**christianj** · 29th-August-2009

As with all else, the general consensus is that one must really just get on with one's life and ignore the crap..

What else is more important..

**Percy** · 29th-August-2009

Scientists are increasingly concerned about the dangers to children of the electrons that circle atoms at phenominal speed.

Professor W. Anker of the Massachusets Institute of Femitology said, " After many, many years trying very hard - which is terribly stressful, you know - and using cutting edge feminst-inspired Theory AND qualified Mothers to keep an eye on them, we still don't know how fast an electron is going when we catch one and when we can measure its speed we don't know where it is".

President Obama's Science Tzar is reportedly looking into banning atoms altogether and eradicating them using Eugenics. "It's in the best interests of the children", he said.

**CaptDMO** · 29th-August-2009

One issue I have is the freely abused prefix "Nano" on the labels of products worth little, and marketed to easily impressed "consumers".

Much like "Lite-", Light, New and improved, organic, bio-, safer, alternative, XXX approved, etc. etc. "Nano-" represents something so far beyond the average persons tangible concept-
like lightyear, or 9 Trillion, that it's actually meaningless.

Wake me up when Compact Florescent Lamps measure mercury content in %Mols, and "Buy Local" is measured in Kilometers away the product is actually Mined,Manufactured, and Machined.

I always seem to get myself dis invited from conversations about fucking around with DNA, manipulating cells, and (genuine)Nanotechnology medicine and manufacturing, when I ask "Where's the "Oh Shit" button?"

The big red one that shuts down a party, faster than Andy Dick, if things suddenly go "unexpectedly".

Sorry, I've read too many Sci-Fi books. Then again, the whole "Igniting the atmosphere" thing that was a bit iffy under the College stadium where folks decided to light off the first Nuclear "reaction".
Now THAT was "Nano".

**Shagda** · 29th-August-2009

Quote from shaazam

the most potentially lethal particle known to man is the feminiticle

being the most powerful reducing agent known to man and once contaminated man feels an overwhelming sense of relaxation contentment and trust in the contaminant - his wimmin

however as the particle's adverse properties begin to work

( it paralyses his critical thinkin) the man is progressively reduced into a sniveling heap of indecision and hopelessness and despair as the feminiticle eats his mind from inside out

the feminiticle needs the man to be in a state of dereistic rapture before it can infect him

the state of enrapturing is called falling in love or a theatrical self delusion nurtured on the selective repression of facts or a suspension of disbelief or a triumph of his hope over his experience

in the final sage of this contagion man is a mere cypher totally in thrall of his feminit nemesis

HAHAHAHAHA.....Dude that is awsome..

**Shagda** · 29th-August-2009

Quote from Percy

Scientists are increasingly concerned about the dangers to children of the electrons that circle atoms at phenominal speed.

Professor W. Anker of the Massachusets Institute of Femitology said, " After many, many years trying very hard - which is terribly stressful, you know - and using cutting edge feminst-inspired Theory AND qualified Mothers to keep an eye on them, we still don't know how fast an electron is going when we catch one and when we can measure its speed we don't know where it is".

President Obama's Science Tzar is reportedly looking into banning atoms altogether and eradicating them using Eugenics. "It's in the best interests of the children", he said.

Percy, lol. I'm not exactly a genius...Well I mean I am a genius, but not a prominent one....

Anyway, banning atoms? Id like to see someone try to do that...lol

**Percy** · 29th-August-2009

Anyway, banning atoms? Id like to see someone try to do that...lol

Do we really want America out of the Atom business?

The American nuclear family - all fourteen of them - rely on American Atoms.

America's huge Industrial power is built on Atoms.

Do we want only the Chinese making them !! ??

**Shagda** · 29th-August-2009

Quote from Percy

Do we really want America out of the Atom business?

The American nuclear family - all fourteen of them - rely on American Atoms.

America's huge Industrial power is built on Atoms.

Do we want only the Chinese making them !! ??

Considering the way our government has tryed to police the rest of the world I think we should get as far ahead in the science/technology field as possible.
No, America needs to focus more on science.In this day with our current ability's, with proper resources, I believe there is no limit to what could be accomplished.