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The Unknown
Dangers of Nanotech
Infinitely small nanostructures will soon permeate your food, body
and environment on the grounds of improving structure, preventing
disease and enhancing traits, but their potential to be toxic,
invade immune systems or simply behave erratically and unexpectedly
could pose real dangers in a burgeoning industry rapidly delving
into the unknown
Jonesreport | Dec. 6, 2007
By Aaron Dykes
Nanotechnology
could become a revolutionary force in the near future, but its
microparticulate nature poses uncertain risks and unknown dangers as
it infuses unchecked with foods, cosmetics, medical treatments,
plastics and many other materials which already permeate hundreds of
consumer products.
Many scientists have recently aired their concerns in an apparent
paradox-- the very developments expected to work wonders across the
gamut of science, medicine, technology and everyday life could
expose consumers to the vulnerability of nanotech's infinitely small
size and potential instability.
The Economist reports that:
"Nanoparticulate
versions of a [known] material can act in novel ways... despite
hundreds of years of experience in chemistry, it is not easy to
predict how a substance will behave when it is made extremely
small. Plenty of research suggests that nanoparticles of
harmless substances can become exceptionally dangerous.
Materials, such as gold, that would not react to other
substances become reactive. [Yet] silver can have antimicrobial
properties."
Despite an
insufficient understanding of the adverse effects nanoproducts could
have on health and the environment, big money is pouring into an
industry expected to grow to $1 trillion by 2010 and several
trillion by 2014, which governments across the globe are already
stimulating with cash injections and heavy subsidies.
Channel News Asia expects
that nanotech will "permeate almost every aspect of our lives" in
the "time to come."
Yet many are worried that nano-scaled toxic particles can be
breathed-in more easily and would more quickly accumulate in the
body.
The Economist writes
"research on animals suggests that nanoparticles can even evade some
of the body's natural defense systems and accumulate in the brain,
cells, blood and nerves."
For researchers like Dr. Rye Senjen, the primary concern is when
food and nanotech mix:
"I
think it's genetically engineering on steroids,
because nanotechnology has a much bigger application that will be
applied to every single aspect of the food chain. It's much more
scary," she said.
Nano-particles will radicalize food, serving new uncertain functions
such as preserving lettuce to an extended 30-day shelf life and
enhancing food products like chocolate with a dazzling synthetic
sheen, and will potentially alter the nutritional value of a wide
range of other foods (for better or for worse).
"Some companies want to use nanoparticles as ingredients in the food
itself,"
Simon Lauder reports for the
Australian Broadcasting Corp. But the potential dangers? "Nanoparticles
could breach the body's defenses in ways no natural food can," he
says.
But the
AFP concludes that it is actually the science and
tech crowd who are more worried about these issues. "Public and
political awareness of the technology... is amazingly low, Nigel
Cameron of the Institute on Biotechnology and the Human Future told
AFP. The report also commented on a poll that surveyed reactions to
the emerging nanotech industry:
"The average
Joe and Jane are more worried than the experts that nano will
cause job losses, an arms race and a loss of privacy, according
to the surveys published in Nature."
Sun Microsystems
co-founder
Bill Joy warned in 2000 against
the potential for nanotech to "destroy the biosphere on which all
life depends," referring to its offers of power as a "Faustian
bargain."
Currently, nanotech is heavily subsidized and rapidly gaining
investment yet under-researched and thus far unregulated.
Manufacturers aren't required to declare what products have been
created with nanotechnology-- and agreed upon standards and
practices are not yet well-developed.
Industry experts
are calling for more research money to better understand the dangers
and risks, which is currently hampered by factors including the "big
hands" difficulty of accurately measuring and testing the properties
of such tiny particles.
At the same time, the potential benefits of nano-medicine could be
enormous.
Chemistry World reports that
certain nano materials may be able to "kill the H5N1 bird flu
virus","incorporate copper oxide as an antifungal" and use "silver
for its antibacterial properties." There are also a number of
serious proposals to use nanobots in the repair of organs or to
target viruses and agents of disease in the blood system or
throughout the body.
Further down the road of nanotech development, leading futurist and
inventor Ray Kurzweil foresees potential crises such as nanobot wars
and epidemics generated at the nano-level in his ground-breaking
book
The Age of Spiritual Machines.
Just think of the danger it could pose in the hands of the elite,
who already regard human life as a force to control, regulate and
dispose of at will.
The potential for autonomous, self replicating and possibly thinking
nanobots to either use or become mutating pathogens within the drama
of a war between nanobot factions or against mankind is beyond
frightening yet well-enough within the realm of things to come that
it poses serious questions about the survival of the human
population... at least in Kurzweil's vision.
Whether or not such issues will remain science fiction or later
become reality remains to be seen. At present, nanotech is little
more than a big business opportunity with aspirations of
infiltrating every niche in the market. What its effect could be for
health, food, environment, energy, machinery, warfare or the human
condition has yet to be seen. The nano world is still too much an
unknown.
FURTHER READING:
Experts: Nanotech Risk Higher Than You
Think
The Economist: The risk in nanotechnology - A little risky
business
Nanotechnology a 'bigger concern' than GM
foods
Bill Joy: Why the future doesn't need us
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