Assessing Nanoparticle Risks to Human Health

Preface

Gurumurthy Ramachandran

Nanotechnology grows out of a number of scientific fields including chemistry, biology, physics, optics, and mechanics and is seen by many as the “next industrial revolution.” This set of novel technologies and its products poses fundamental challenges to conventional risk assessment paradigms (such as chemical or microbial risk assessment). Besides a lack of data, there is deep scientific uncertainty regarding every aspect of the risk assessment framework: (a) particle characteristics that may affect toxicity; (b) their fate and transport through the environment; (c) the routes of exposure and the metrics by which exposure ought to be measured; (d) the mechanisms of translocation to different parts of the body; ...