From mascara to tennis balls to baby wipes, tiny nanomaterials are hidden in many of the products we use every day. Although there is much more we’d like to know about how exposure to nanomaterials affects human health and the environment, preliminary studies demonstrate that some nanomaterials are likely to be harmful. The current approach to chemical regulation cannot be relied upon to prevent harm from nanomaterials; it is slow, costly, and fails to prevent exposures to known hazardous chemical pollutants. It is crucial that government regulation and public debate catch up with this rapidly advancing technology.

Nanotechnologies are the engineered convergence of biology, chemistry, and informatics at the nano-scale. The products of these efforts are called nanomaterials, consisting of nanoparticles (having one or more dimensions of 1-100 nanometers in size) and the grouping of these particles into structures that may be larger than nano-scale.  Nano-scale materials dissolve in different ways, take on different magnetic properties, react differently to chemicals, or reflect light differently than they would at normal size. The very qualities that make nanomaterials commercially desirable can also make them more toxic than their normal-sized counterparts. Because they are so small—the head of a pin is about 1 million nanometers across --  nanomaterials can be extremely mobile, and may pass easily into the bloodstream when inhaled, swallowed, and possibly when applied to the skin.. Once inside the body, they seem to have access to most or all tissues and organs, including the brain. It is unknown whether nanomaterials pass from the mother’s blood circulation to the fetal circulation, or through breast milk to a nursing infant. While the potential for toxicity of intentionally engineered nano-scale materials is still being explored, studies on the health effects of unintentional nano-scale air pollutants is relevant. These data demonstrate that inhalation of nano-sized chemical pollutants is associated with asthma attacks, heart disease, strokes, and respiratory disease.

Despite the as-yet-unknown effects of nanotechnologies on human health, manufacturers already are incorporating nanomaterials into hundreds of consumer products, making nanomaterials the future of chemistry. Products as diverse as sunscreen, skin lotion, house paint, and stain-proof clothing already contain nanomaterials. Given that early nanotoxicology studies suggest that nanomaterials have the potential to be harmful, until we know the risks, these products should be presumed dangerous to consumers and to the workers who are exposed to them during product development, production, use, and disposal. Labor unions and environmental justice advocates have joined together to call on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to move quickly to fully disclose hazards and take protective action to prevent harm to workers and their families from nanomaterials.