Despite all efforts to establish the risks associated with nanotechnology-based products, there’s still a considerable uncertainty about the safety of these materials.

All emerging technologies offer great promises but also pose ethical and regulatory dilemmas that we must deal with. While the benefits of a new material, product, or process are often immediately appreciable, assessing their risks takes time. Nanotechnologies are no exception. Nanoscale materials often exhibit new or improved physicochemical properties compared with bulk material resulting in potential new applications. However, the very same properties that make nanomaterials so appealing also raise concerns about their safety. The wide range of nanomaterials’ industrial, biomedical and consumer uses has increased the likelihood of environmental and human exposure to these materials. So far, nanomaterials risk assessment has been done on a case-by-case basis, which is not feasible considering the vast number of materials and their possible variations. Scientists are now looking for new toxicity testing strategies based on predictive and high-throughput technologies for evaluating the potential hazard of these materials.

The Environmental Health Research Group

The Environmental Health Research Group is integrated in both the Environmental Health Department of the Portuguese National Institute of Health, and in the EPIUnit of the Institute of Public Health of the University of Porto. The group is led by Professor João Paulo Teixeira and supported by a multidisciplinary and highly skilled research team with expertise in the evaluation of the impact of environmental and lifestyle factors on human health, with a particular focus on genotoxicity and mechanistic studies, using both experimental models and human populations.

Towards a safe development and use of nanomaterials

In the last six years, the Environmental Health Research Group has been particularly involved in several initiatives in the field of the safety assessment of manufactured nanomaterials. They soon realised that a harmonised European and global collaboration to develop science-based, regulatory-driven safety evaluations would be the key for an effective and reliable nanomaterials risk assessment. Their first international joint venture within this field was in 2010, with a partnership in the European project NanoLINEN-Nanotoxicology link between India and European Nations (New INDIGO Networking Pilot Programme on Biotechnology and Health), which promoted the mobility of scientists among the eight participant countries, seven European laboratories and the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, fostering collaborative research within partners with complementary expertise.

The application of the safe(r)-by-design concept along the innovation process of nanotechnology-based products has recently emerged as a promising tool to accelerate the capitalisation of the economic potential of nano-based products. Understanding how the intrinsic properties of nanomaterials (e.g. chemical composition, size, shape, surface chemistry) influence their interaction with biological systems will be decisive not only to accelerate the hazard assessment of the large number of already available nanomaterials but also to assist the industry in the safe design.

The group has recently started to work within this field of investigation as partner of ERA-NET SIINN NANOTOXCLASS (http://www.nanotoxclass.eu/) consortium led by Dr Andrea Haase of the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR). The project aims to develop a comprehensive grouping approach based on the joint consideration of relevant physical, chemical and biological properties (mode of action) of the nanoparticles to prioritise their testing and support risk assessment. Through a systematic and targeted approach, it is expected to establish criteria for grouping based not only in conventional toxicity endpoints but also in omics analyses (transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics), getting a more complete picture of the effects induced by different kinds of nanoparticles (e.g. TiO₂, SiO₂) present in products already available on the market.

According to the European Agency for Safety Work and Health, nanoparticles and ultrafine particles have been identified as one of the strongest emerging risks. Considering that nanotechnology industries are clearly expanding, workplace exposure is a matter of great concern. The comprehensive assessment of occupational exposure, toxicity and risk during the production and handling of nanomaterials has only rather recently become feasible, with the advent of new measurement techniques and first attempts towards harmonised measurement strategies. The recently begun ERA-NET SIINN CERASAFE project led by Dr Mar Viana of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) addresses the occupational risks associated with the manufacture of nanomaterials in the ceramic industry. The project will assess workers’ exposure under different scenarios and characterise intentionally and unintentionally produced nanoparticles during different industrial processes. The Environmental Health Research Group will be in charge of the evaluation the biological/toxicological effects of airborne nanoceramics materials in relevant in vitro and in vivo models.

Main publications of the group

• Kiliç G. et al (2016). Res., 5: 235–247. DOI: 10.1039/C5TX00206K
• Costa C. et al (2015). Appl. Toxicol. 36(3): 361-372. DOI: 10.1002/jat.3213
• Valdiglesias V. et al (2013). Food Chem. Toxicol. 57: 352–361. DOI: 10.1016/j.fct.2013.04.010
• Valdiglesias V. et al (2013). Int. 55: 92–100. DOI: 10.1016/j.envint.2013.02.013
• Fraga S. et al (2013). Appl. Toxicol. 33: 1111–1119. DOI: 10.1002/jat.2865

João Paulo Teixeira, PhD
Co-ordinator of the Group of Environmental and Laboratory Epidemiology of the Institute of Public Health,
University of Porto, Portugal

Co-ordinator of Environmental Health Unit

Portuguese National Institute of Health

+351 933263104
jpft12@gmail.com
www.insa.pt
www.ispup.up.pt

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