I love all the things nano, from the ipod nano to nano materials. However, many of these nano-materials have not been fully investigated as to what would be the outcome should an accidental exposure from these substances happen to a person or merely to the environment. Remember asbestos? That really good fire-proof insulating material, remember how it turns out that inhalation of nano-scale particulates of it can give you mesothelioma and incurable lung cancer? Yeah, so perhaps use of nano engineered materials could turn out to have some unforseen and very unwelcome health consequences. The good folks at Sciam have written an article on the study of how carbon nanotubes would behave if released into a natural water system. The results weren’t good. It turns out that even though the nanotubes are hydrophobic, instead of clumping together and sinking to the bottom, the particles interacted with the negatively charged organic material in the water and this organic material turned out to be a better disperser for the material than the chemical surfactants that had been used in the lab for that very purpose. Hit the link for a very interesting read.

Safety study for Carbon Nanotubes