Introduction - Research Progress on Environmental Health and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials - page 1

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Introduction
Despite the increase in funding for research and the rising numbers of peer-reviewed publications
over the past decade that address the environmental, health, and safety (EHS) aspects of engineered
nanomaterials (ENMs) (NRC 2012; NSET 2012; PCAST 2012), uncertainty about the implications of
potential exposures of consumers, workers, and ecosystems to these materials persists. Consumers and
workers want to know which of these materials they are exposed to and whether the materials can harm
them (see Appendix C). Industry is concerned about being able to predict with sufficient certainty
whether products that it makes and markets will pose any EHS issues and what measures should be taken
regarding manufacturing practices and worldwide distribution to minimize any potential risk. However,
there remains a disconnect between the research that is being carried out and its relevance to and use by
decision-makers and regulators to make informed public health and environmental policy and regulatory
decisions.
Although those broad topics remain to be better addressed, progress has been made in
understanding some aspects of EHS risks posed by ENMs. There is now greater understanding of the
dynamic behavior of ENMs; minimum characterization standards, which are still evolving, are now more
widely accepted by the field; some reference materials have been distributed and evaluated with models;
models for estimating environmental exposures to ENMs have been proposed; and methods for
characterizing ENMs in relevant matrices have been developed. However, research on the potential EHS
implications of ENMs still lacks context, particularly with regard to future risks, because materials and
their uses are changing rapidly. Consequently, the continued focus on available and well-studied materials
(such as titanium dioxide) may be misplaced; it is possible that the issues most salient for the future are
not being addressed. Some relevant topics have received little attention, such as possible effects of
ingested ENMs on human health, measurement of nanoscale characteristics that influence their behavior
in situ (for example, the structure of surface coatings), and processes that affect biouptake.
Investments in nanotechnology and the production of ENMs continue to grow; the global market
for nanotechnology products is projected to exceed $3 trillion by 2015 (Lux 2008a,b). Industry practices
are changing, moving from the use of nanotechnology for enhancement of existing technologies to
manufacturing of new products that depend on novel materials and the functionality of nanotechnology
(Maynard 2009). Industries are no longer touting nanotechnology initiatives; rather, nanotechnology is
becoming embedded in their business practices. However, EHS research efforts are not keeping pace with
the evolving applications of nanotechnology, and this issue has motivated development of the research
agendas on EHS aspects of ENMs for more than a decade. That context was crucial in the timing of the
first report from the present committee, A Research Strategy for Environmental, Health, and Safety
Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials , which was released in January 2012, and remains relevant for this
second report.