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A comprehensive framework for evaluating the environmental health and safety implications of engineered nanomaterials
Citation:
Boyes, W., L. Thornton, S. Al-Abed, C. Andersen, D. Bouchard, R. Burgess, E. Hubal, K. Ho, M. Hughes, K. Kitchin, J. Reichman, K. Rogers, J. Ross, P. Rygiewicz, K. Scheckel, S. Thai, R. Zepp, AND R. Zucker. A comprehensive framework for evaluating the environmental health and safety implications of engineered nanomaterials. CRITICAL REVIEWS IN TOXICOLOGY. CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, FL, 47(9):767-801, (2017).
Impact/Purpose:
A nanomaterials decision support framework to aid in the evaluation of the risks of nanomaterials across their life cycle. This framework provides a strategically structured environment in which data needs can be identified in the context of a particular risk question. Environmental actions of engineered nanomaterials are reviewed along the framework
Description:
Engineered nanomaterials (ENM) are a growing aspect of the global economy, and their safe and sustainable development, use and eventual disposal requires the capability to forecast and avoid potential problems. This review is concerned with the releases of ENM into the environment, including purposeful releases such as for antimicrobial sprays or nano-enabled pesticides, and inadvertent releases as a consequence of other intended applications. Considerations encompass product life cycles, environmental media, exposed populations and possible adverse outcomes. A decision-tree framework composed of a series of compartmental flow diagrams is presented as a basis to help derive future quantitative predictive models and to support risk-based decisions. After use, nanomaterials are not expected to remain in their originally produced form due to reactivity and/or affinity for hetero-agglomeration in environmental media. Therefore emphasis is placed on characterizing ENM as they occur in environmental or biological matrices. In addition, predicting the activity of ENM in the environment is difficult due to the multiple dynamic interactions between the physical/chemical aspects of nanomaterials and the similarly complex environmental conditions. Others have proposed the use of simple predictive functional assays as an intermediate step to address the challenge of using physical/chemical properties to predict environmental fate and behavior of ENM. The nodes and interactions of the framework presented here reflect phase transitions that could be targets for development of such assays to estimate kinetic reaction rates and simplify model predictions. This framework, with targeted functional assay data, will allow more efficient and effective de novo predictions of potential exposures and adverse outcomes.
