Aquatic Environment Exposure and Toxicity of Engineered Nanomaterials Released from Nano-Enabled Products: Current Status and Data Needs

Abstract

Rapid commercialisation of nano-enabled products (NEPs) elevates the potential environmental release of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) along the product life cycle. The current review examined the state of the art literature on aquatic environment exposure and ecotoxicity of product released (PR) engineered nanomaterials (PR–ENMs). Additionally, the data obtained were applied to estimate the risk posed by PR–ENMs to various trophic levels of aquatic biota as a means of identifying priority NEPs cases that may require attention with regards to examining environmental implications. Overall, the PR–ENMs are predominantly associated with the matrix of the respective NEPs, a factor that often hinders proper isolation of nano-driven toxicity effects. Nevertheless, some studies have attributed the toxicity basis of observed adverse effects to a combination of the released ions, ENMs and other components of NEPs. Notwithstanding the limitation of current ecotoxicology data limitations, the risk estimated herein points to an elevated risk towards fish arising from fabrics’ PR–nAg, and the considerable potential effects from sunscreens’ PR–nZnO and PR–nTiO2 to algae, echinoderms, and crustaceans (PR–nZnO), whereas PR–nTiO2 poses no significant risk to echinoderms. Considering that the current data limitations will not be overcome immediately, we recommend the careful application of similar risk estimation to isolate/prioritise cases of NEPs for detailed characterisation of ENMs’ release and effects in aquatic environments.

A Content Review of Life Cycle Assessment of Nanomaterials: Current Practices, Challenges, and Future Prospects

“…Collections of complete and reliable data, which includes clear explanations of applied assumptions, advantages and disadvantages, and transparency and credibility criteria, are limited. The unavailable data needs to be covered by estimations, secondary, and generic data, which may lead to a higher level of uncertainty and limit the scope of the study [95].…”

Development of a Benefit Assessment Matrix for Nanomaterials and Nano-enabled Products—Toward Safe and Sustainable by Design

“…Nanotechnologies and materials are developed in various forms but always with the expectation of improved or novel benefits over their conventional non-nano counterparts. A nano-enabled product (NEP) contains nanomaterials or nano-enabled materials (i.e., powders, suspensions, composites or membranes incorporating nanoscale structures, such as nano-thin layers or nanoporous matrixes) [1]. NEPs are the most common form of nanotechnology encountered, such as antimicrobial fabrics incorporating nano-silver (nano-Ag) or sunscreens containing nano-titanium dioxide (nano-TiO 2 ).…”