The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: May 25, 2008

Official News page 7


REAL LIFE NEWS: NANOTUBE HEALTH WARNING

by Hazed

Carbon nanotubes are a new wonder-material with remarkable properties. They are sheets of carbon atoms which are folded into a cylinder, and are a member of the fullerene family. Very strong and very light, they are already being incorporated into products such as tennis rackets, bicycle handlebars and baseball bats, and there are high hopes that they can be used for advanced electronics, chemistry and materials science.

However, there could be a problem. A study suggests that carbon nanotubes could trigger diseases similar to those caused by asbestos. Specific lengths of the tiny fibers were found to cause inflammation and lesions in mice. Oh dear.

The researchers don't suggest that there is any risk to people using products that incorporate carbon nanotubes, so you don't have to throw away that tennis racket, but they have warned that there is a potential risk for workers exposed to the tubes during manufacturing and disposal.

However, the nanotech industry cautioned against drawing conclusions from a single study. "Until now we have not had two studies that showed the same result," said Dr Steffi Friedrich, director of the Nanotechnology Industries Association. "The latest study suggests there could be a reason for concern and suggests there is an effect but it needs to be validated."

He's right: more study is needed to see if there is a problem, but if it turns out that nanotubes are harmful to health, let's hope the industry deals with the problem better than the asbestos industry did!


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