"Perhaps Nanotechnology provides the best toolbox for Sustainability"
To work proactively - and identify possible risks early. Researchers and industries looking for new materials, in response to major societal challenges, should do so in close collaboration with nanosafety researchers. This is the reasoning of two LTH researchers who have both immersed themselves in risks with new materials.
There are risks. According to both Christina Isaxon and Jonas Borell, new materials are primarily a matter of opportunity and not problem - provided that caution and solid risk management are applied
What are the risks with the new materials that not least researchers and companies are often heard hoping for? Christina Isaxon and Jonas Borell both do research in nanosafety at NanoLund, from different perspectives.
In general, it is a risk if we uncritically and without learning from similar situations use new materials. An example to learn from is that a number of decades ago, without thinking about it, we used asbestos in everything from building materials to filters in cigarettes and gas masks.
According to Christina Isaxon, before a new nanomaterial is used in consumer products, we should find out how toxic the new material is and in what ways people and the environment may be exposed.
If nanoparticles become airborne at some point during the material's life cycle and if the material is not biodegradable, there is an obvious risk, she says.
Jonas Borell wants to issue a warning here:
When people produce new materials whose physical form or chemical composition has not previously existed in nature, there is always the risk that these in one way or another affect living organisms. In practice, all materials will in some form, at some point, come into contact with organisms.
What is the call to industry and decision-makers, to avoid nanorelated risks?
Christina Isaxon advises to think about safety already in the design phase of new materials.
- If it is possible to maintain the same functionality, priority should be given to materials which, for example, are biodegradable, which do not need to be handled in powder form and which do not have a distinct fiber form. Until we know something about the properties of a new material, we should treat it as if it were highly toxic, completely according to the precautionary principle.
Even though we in Sweden today do not have any nanospecific health limit values in the work environment, the industry can lean on those that exist or have been proposed in other parts of the EU or in the USA, she says.
The industry should also be transparent with its research results. When large nanomanufacturing industries test the toxicity of their material, they can choose to share so that smaller companies, which cannot afford such tests, can avoid risks.
If the EU received a label for consumer goods that contain nano, in terms of quantity and type of nanomaterial, the working environment would be safer for those who work with waste and recycling, says Christina Isaxon.
According to both Christina Isaxon and Jonas Borell, new materials are primarily a matter of opportunity and not problem - provided that caution and solid risk management are applied.
Everyone who researches or works with nanomaterials must be generally informed about nanosafety, says Jonas Borell. It is about knowing the basics of how substances or materials can be harmful and dangerous to organisms, and how this can be handled.
Work processes and regulations must be designed so that potential risks are identified and managed at an early stage, says Jonas Borell, who is himself one of the authors of a report to the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority on safety training and safety culture at research facilities.
Something that is sometimes forgotten, according to Christina Isaxon, is that the progress of nanosafety research means that knowledge is much greater today than just a few years ago.
I think that many people think that we have done well without nanotechnology for a long time and that, given the risks, we should only phase out the entire nano-industry. But then you should know that nanotechnology can be perhaps the best toolbox we have available to achieve many of the sustainability goals in Agenda 2030. Without nanotechnology, for example, we may not meet the goals of health, clean water and sustainable energy for all.