{"id":4447,"date":"2015-05-26T18:44:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-26T18:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/2015\/05\/er-nanomaterialer-trygge-i-bruk\/"},"modified":"2020-09-15T11:14:02","modified_gmt":"2020-09-15T09:14:02","slug":"are-nanomaterials-safe-to-use","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/2015\/05\/are-nanomaterials-safe-to-use\/","title":{"rendered":"Are nanomaterials safe to use?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elise Rund\u00e9n Pran, Senior Scientist, NILU.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The unique properties of nanomaterials, and what make these products useful, are linked to the nanoscale. One nanometer is one billionth of a metre \u2013 and nanoparticles are defined as particles between 1 and 100 nanometres in size.<\/p>\n

Size really matters<\/h2>\n

It is the nanosize that enables the particles to cross barriers in the body (e.g. the blood brain barrier protecting the brain), and this feature has revolutionized nanomedicine for diagnostics and treatment.<\/p>\n

Further, nanomaterials can be designed, combined and manipulated to achieve the desired properties, e.g., by surface coating and change of size. But how can we be sure that nanomaterials only do what we desire them to do? Could nanomaterials also have unintentional effects that could be hazardous to humans or environment?<\/p>\n

Testing toxicity<\/h2>\n

To prevent hazardous effects on humans or the environment, it is essential to test the potential toxicity of the nanomaterials. However, there is a knowledge gap between nanotechnology and nanotoxicology.<\/p>\n

The Health Effects Laboratory at NILU has great expertise in the field of nanotoxicology, and applies a battery of in vitro tests (testing in cell cultures in dishes instead of in animals (in vivo)) adapted for toxicity testing of nanoparticles. This is in accordance with the Regulation on Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH) to \u201creduce, refine and replace\u201d for minimizing the use of animals in research.<\/p>\n

Standard tests generally have to be modified and validated to ensure the nanoparticles do not interfere with the test assay, as the small size gives a large surface and thus a very high reactivity. What makes this field so interesting, but also so challenging, is that toxicity is highly dependent upon both the size of the nanoparticles as well as the surface coating.<\/p>\n

To avoid completing a development process for a new nanomaterial with desired features and finding out in the end that it is highly toxic, development and toxicity testing should in general be performed in parallel. This \u201csafe-by-design\u201d approach will save both time and cost.<\/p>\n

Narrowing the knowledge gap<\/h2>\n

The Health Effects Laboratory continues to explore the field of nanotoxicology further, to contribute to narrowing the knowledge gap and ensure nanosafety \u2013 the safe use of nanomaterials.<\/p>\n

Validation and standardization of test methods is very important, and we are involved in many international and national projects within this area. Especially for this work, it is of great advantage that the Health Effects Laboratory is certified by the Norwegian Accreditation body according to the OECD\u00b4s principles\u00a0 for good laboratory practice (GLP) \u2013 currently as the only GLP certified laboratory for in vitro human toxicity testing in Norway.<\/p>\n

The Health Effects Laboratory is part of NILU’s Environmental Chemistry Department<\/p>\n

\"Pr\u00f8vetaking<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nanomaterialer er overalt. Du finner dem i et bredt spekter av materialer, fra sportsklær, kosmetikk og tannkrem, til maling, bygningsmaterialer, elektronikk og legemidler. Så lenge den raske fremgangen innen nanoteknologi fortsetter, blir det stadig flere produkter på markedet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[77],"class_list":["post-4447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newsarchive","tag-648257-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4447"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4450,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4447\/revisions\/4450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nilu.gnist.dev\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}