The April issue of Environmental Health Perspectives carries a short article summarizing a seminar at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting titled "Driving Beyond Our Nano-Headlights?". In the summary, there is a brief reference to work done by Vanesa Sanchez, a graduate student at Brown University. The results of her experiment are rather alarming.
Ms. Sanchez work showed that
very low doses of CNTs . . . appeared to cause lesions known as granulomas similar to what occurs with asbestos fibers. Moreover, the CNTs formed a cage-like structure that . . . might promote granuloma formation.
It is too bad that the summary didn’t give more space to a study that could have a profound effect on future nanomanufacturing facilities and possible future governmental regulation of the nano-industry.
