Overstating the Nanotube Threat

The May 21 news story "Effects of Nanotubes May Lead to Cancer, Study Says" sounded many alarm bells but let's be clear about what this study does and does not tell us. While the story suggested that some nanotubes are toxic and are used in a wide variety of consumer products, I looked long and hard as part of an ongoing research project with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for consumer applications that could result in direct exposure to them, and could not find any.

While nanotubes are found in products such as touch screens, auto bodies and MP3 players, they are not yet in consumer products that would cause people to inhale them. Thus, while some nanotubes are hazardous (and the study suggests some are not), it's unlikely that consumers are currently at risk, because they are not being directly exposed to them. Worker safety is a concern, but there still exists an opportunity to prevent these exposures, and to make nanotubes and other nanomaterials safer, before widespread exposure occurs.

What this study does tell us is that more research is urgently needed to ensure the safety of nanotubes and other nanomaterials for consumers, workers and the environment, by engineering them to be non-hazardous.

JO ANNE SHATKIN

Paxton, Mass.

The writer, an environmental health scientist, founded the Emerging Nanoscale Material Specialty Group of the Society for Risk Analysis.