by Gwyneth K. Shaw | Jun 15, 2012 10:36 am

(NHI Nanoblog) Its become a rallying cry for some researchers who are scrutinizing the potential health and environmental effects of super-small particles: Test the products that use nanomaterials, not just the substances themselves.

A new study looking at the exposure risk of nano-enabled cosmetic powders offers a powerful validation of that argument. The researchers conclude that the hazards are different from what might be expected, given the size of the particles involved.

They also found that even the rudimentary labeling of nano-enabled products isnt always accurate: Five of the six powders contained nanoparticles, even though only three were marketed that way.

The researchers, from Rutgers University and the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School-University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, predict that exposure to nanoparticles from cosmetic powders is more likely to be in the upper respiratory system, rather than in the deeper, smaller alveolar area. In other words, these products are mostly coming throughand maybe lodging inyour nose, throat and the bronchial area.

The study was published in Environmental Health Perspectives, an open-access journal put out by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Experimental studies using pure versions of nanomaterials suggested that they would migrate to the alveolar region, home of the tiny sacs that form the end of the smallest airways and where the exchange of air and carbon monoxide takes place.

Our findings on potential nanomaterial inhalation exposure due to the use of actual consumer products emphasize that properties and effects of the pure nanomaterial ingredients cannot be used to predict actual consumer exposures and resulting health effects, the authors write. Therefore, experimental techniques for toxicity studies of de facto nanotechnology-based consumer products must be developed. Results of such studies will provide guidance for the developing market of nanotechnology-based consumer products and help clarify the need and feasibility of its regulation.

Nanotechnology is a broad term that encompasses a wide variety of uses of very small materials. (A nanometer is a billionth of a meter.) These substances can make better batteries or lighter and stronger bike frames, as well as new medical instruments and medicines that can save lives. Theyre increasingly common in consumer products, from sunscreens to stain-repellent pants to boat paints that resist algae growth.

Nanomaterials are believed to hold great promise for a wide variety of applications. Their ultra-tiny size often gives them different properties, which is the basis of their appeal; scientists are struggling to figure out whether that can make them dangerous in the process, and how and why it happens.

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