Nanoparticles in the environment: assessment using the causal diagram approach
Suchi Smita
0
Shailendra K Gupta
Alena Bartonova
Maria Dusinska
Arno C Gutleb
Qamar Rahman
0
0
Amity University
,
Lucknow Campus, Viraj Khand 5, Lucknow-226010, U.P.
,
India
Nanoparticles (NPs) cause concern for health and safety as their impact on the environment and humans is not known. Relatively few studies have investigated the toxicological and environmental effects of exposure to naturally occurring NPs (NNPs) and man-made or engineered NPs (ENPs) that are known to have a wide variety of effects once taken up into an organism. A review of recent knowledge (between 2000-2010) on NP sources, and their behaviour, exposure and effects on the environment and humans was performed. An integrated approach was used to comprise available scientific information within an interdisciplinary logical framework, to identify knowledge gaps and to describe environment and health linkages for NNPs and ENPs. The causal diagram has been developed as a method to handle the complexity of issues on NP safety, from their exposure to the effects on the environment and health. It gives an overview of available scientific information starting with common sources of NPs and their interactions with various environmental processes that may pose threats to both human health and the environment. Effects of NNPs on dust cloud formation and decrease in sunlight intensity were found to be important environmental changes with direct and indirect implication in various human health problems. NNPs and ENPs exposure and their accumulation in biological matrices such as microbiota, plants and humans may result in various adverse effects. The impact of some NPs on human health by ROS generation was found to be one of the major causes to develop various diseases. A proposed cause-effects diagram for NPs is designed considering both NNPs and ENPs. It represents a valuable information package and user-friendly tool for various stakeholders including students, researchers and policy makers, to better understand and communicate on issues related to NPs.
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From HENVINET (Health and Environment Network) final conference
Brussels, Belgium. 14 April 2010 - 15 April 2010
Background
Within HENVINET, an FP6 funded project, causal
diagrams were developed as a tool to evaluate areas of
agreement and disagreement between scientists and to
identify gaps of knowledge [1,2]. The method of expert
elicitation was applied by the HENVINET consortium to
assess the health and policy implications of phthalates,
where all details in the methodology behind the results
presented here of the decaBDE and HBCD elicitations
can be found [2]. In addition, an extensive review of the
methodology with an overall discussion and analysis of
the outcome for all the priority areas of the HENVINET
consortium has been made [3]. Furthermore evaluations
on advantages and disadvantages of the expert elicitation
methodology have been made by others [4,5]. This
approach has been chosen as one potential method to
handle complex issues that are typically faced by the
environment and health community and
decisionmakers. The current manuscript describes a proposed
cause-effect diagram for nanoparticles (NPs) applicable
to both naturally occurring NPs (NNPs) and man-made
or engineered NPs (ENPs), and provides a short
justification for the inclusion of the proposed elements into the
presented cause-effect diagram. However, it has to be
noted that the presented cause-effect diagram has not
been the topic of an expert- elicitation yet.
At the moment, it is unclear whether the benefits of
nanotechnologies outweigh the risks associated with
environmental release and exposure to NPs and there are
concerns that NPs can also lead to a new class of
environmental hazards [6]. Until now, relatively few studies
have investigated the toxicological and environmental
effects of exposure to NPs and ENPs. However, there is
enormous effort at national and at international levels
including the OECD and the European Union to
investigate the impact of NPs on the environment and health.
No clear guidelines exist on how to evaluate and quantify
these effects, the provision of systematic information
following NPs from releases to effects was requested [7]
and furthermore it was argued to apply an integrated
approach [8]. NPs differ in size, shape, chemical
composition and in many physico-chemical properties. It is
therefore crucially important to know which properties
may cause adverse health effects [9].
Natural and engineered NPs present in the environment
are influenced by a large number of physico-chemical
processes and show different behaviour in organisms, soil,
and water. The accumulation of engineered NPs (ENPs)
has been shown in various organisms and environmental
compartments, such as blue and green algae, fish and
other aquatic organisms as well as soil and sediments
[10-16]. Due to the low number of systematic studies and
lack of knowledge on physicochemical properties and
behaviour of NPs, these (...truncated)