Cal Baier-Anderson, Ph.D., is a Health Scientist.
With conventional chemicals, experience has allowed us to articulate general criteria based on chemical properties that identify chemicals of greatest concern. For example, persistent and bioaccumulative chemicals are assigned a high priority, whereas chemicals that quickly degrade and don’t build up in blood or tissue are, as a rule, likely to be of lower priority.
Concerns about nanomaterials arise from observations that properties that emerge or are greatly enhanced at the nanoscale can alter behavior, including biological activity. These properties make such materials different from conventional forms of the same chemicals. But can a general principle that nanomaterials pose a greater concern than their conventional counterparts be supported? Read More »