Humans and Nanoparticles Share Rich, Common History

As researchers are conducting studies to assess whether exposure to nanoparticles in our environment is dangerous to us or not, a team of experts at the University of Oregon releases a new study showing that these tiny structures have been with our species for centuries.

In the research, the team was able to use a high-powered transmission electron microscope (TEM) to determine that silver articles such as wire, jewelry and eating utensils naturally produce nanoparticles when they come in contact with other surfaces.

What this means is that we have been exposed to nanoparticles ever since chemicals such as silver began being used at a large scale. The work was led by scientists with the Materials Science Institute and the Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative (SNNI), both at UO.

UO technology spinoff Dune Sciences Inc. also contributed to the research. Details of the work have been published in the latest advanced online issue of the American Chemistry Society's (ACS) esteemed scientific journal ACS Nano.

The team reports focusing the study mostly on understanding how silver nanoparticles behave on different surfaces, as they are exposed to various environmental conditions. These conditions were set to emulate common scenarios that take place in real-life.

Within a few hours of being exposed to humid air, water and light, silver nanoparticles placed in the UO SMART Grids TEM began to show significant changes in parameters such as size and shape.

“Our findings show that nanoparticle 'size' may not be static, especially when particles are on surfaces. For this reason, we believe that environmental health and safety concerns should not be defined – or regulated – based upon size,” researcher James E. Hutchison explains.

“In addition, the generation of nanoparticles from objects that humans have contacted for millennia suggests that humans have been exposed to these nanoparticles throughout time,” adds the investigator, who is the Lokey-Harrington Chair in Chemistry at the university.

“Rather than raise concern, I think this suggests that we would have already linked exposure to these materials to health hazards if there were any,” Hutchison concludes.

The new investigation was partially made possible by funds from the US Air Force Research Laboratory and the W.M. Keck Foundation.