Some of the particles resulting from the Nanotechnology research are starting to enter the food chain, any ideas about the possible consequences or health hazards??
Thank You Mahdi, How can we cope with the fact that some of the hazards might not be already known to the people in charge of preparing that file. ?
Certain nanoparticles are highly chemically reactive due to their high surface to volume ratio.This is the property that might be positively exploited in catalysis, remediation, clothing, protective masks in defense. But some research results indicate that the reactivity of some nanoparticles potentially can result in cell damage of human being including animals. The toxicity of nanoparticles depends on their chemical composition and concentration.The health effects of nanoparticles are likely to depends also on their shapes. Recent studies showed a high toxicity of carbon nanotubes which seemed to produce harmful effects by an entirely new mechanisms, different from the normal model of toxic dust. It is reported that nanoparticle may affect kidney, liver, lungs and other parts of body when the concentration was not controlled in food chain..
Thank you Dr Tarafdar , Is their a relation hazard-wise between the very tiny size of the nanoparticles and their ability to go through brain membranes, that used to be and should be absolutely impermeable for particles ?
Dr. Karaki, in plant cell we have found that the nanoparticles less than 20 nm size can penetrate very fast and trigger different co-enzyme systems. Specially enormous penetration power has noticed with the nanoparticles less than 5 nm size. Of course, it has been found that with time the particles become agglomerate and mainly deposited in the vacuole as mega particle. But definitely, if the particles are very tiny and remains the similar size after entering through the cell wall , they may have the ability to go through brain membranes.
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