The Buyer’s Guide to Nanotech

Don’t know much nanotechnology? Join the club. Eight out of ten Americans are as clueless as you, according to a December 2006 survey from Yale University’s Cultural Cognition Project. But that didn’t stop nearly nine out of ten survey respondents from having an opinion about how nanotech’s risks and benefits stack up. Many of those opinions were wary.

The confusing thing about nanotech is that the word is slapped onto many different materials, ideas and processes. The prefix “nano” refers merely to size, and in practice means anything from 1 billionth to 100 billionths of a meter – roughly the size of single atoms up to small clusters. The current nanotech boom boils down to chemistry techniques that allow scientists to manipulate single atoms with immense precision, building a molecule or material one nanometer at a time.

The promises of nanotechnology are nearly limitless; from faster computers and superstrong materials to the targeted delivery of potent cancer “bullets” and a cure for paralysis. All draw from two nanotech pluses: the vast amount of chemically reactive surface area that super-tiny particles have, and the weird physical properties exhibited when a particle is really, really small.

But the raving hordes of nanoskeptics have a point: We just haven’t done much safety research in the area. Andrew Maynard, chief scientist of the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., estimates that while the U.S. government is spending over $1 billion per year on nanotechnology research, only about $11 million (1.1%) goes toward studying highly relevant risks. A handful of major reports from the U.S. and U.K. have come to similar conclusions: Safety research is not keeping up with the number of nanotech products coming to market.

Today’s nanotech is not just a faraway dream bubbling in a laboratory near you, it’s a department store reality. According to the database compiled by the Wilson Center project, nearly 470 consumer or commercial products claim nano improvements. Among them are sunscreens, sports equipment, paint, toothpaste and antibacterial clothes. But are these products truly revolutionary? Are they poised to kill us and the environment? Or are they just bunch of hype?

So for your consuming pleasure, Inkling gives you a glimpse into a select group of products that claim they’re better by nanotech – their boons, busts and bangs for your bucks.

Super Strong
Carbon nanotubes, chickenwire-like lattices of carbon atoms that wrap into a straw, are the strongest and stiffest material known, at a mere one-sixth the weight of steel. Sports-equipment manufacturers have taken note. Babolat in France and Yonex in Japan offer tennis rackets reinforced with carbon nanotubes. Nanotubes have raced in the Tour de France as part of a composite bicycle frame made by Swiss manufacturer BMC as well as strengthened the shaft of a golf driver a golf driver made by American manufacturer Wilson.

On the other hand, carbon nanotubes have also been touted by some critics as the next asbestos; both materials are fibers of similar widths, leading many to believe that nanotubes may lodge in lungs and damage them in the same way. Toxicity studies have yielded contradictory and confusing results. Some studies have found that nanotubes can cause inflammation in rat lungs , but a more recent paper revealed that a trick of the tubes might yield high numbers of false positives in one common safety test . At least all the nanotubes in sporting goods are solidly embedded in composite materials and are not free to enter lung or skin tissue. So no big worries there.

The real damage that these sporting goods are likely to do is to your wallet. Though a fair bit of the nanomarketing mumbo-jumbo is true – namely that equipment is lighter and stronger – only you can be the judge of whether it’s worth the extra bucks. According to the fourth report on the industry by nanotech analysts at Lux Research, issued in 2006, nanotech products command an average price premium of 11% over the conventional competition, even if there’s no noticeable difference in performance.

Pretty, If You Can See It
Cosmetics and skin care is where most people will come face-to-face with nanotechnology. Grinding down ingredients to nanosize can improve the texture of creams and powders and boost efficacy. According to public health advocates the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C., 256 cosmetic products advertise nanoscale or micronized ingredients. These include “nanosomes,” “nanospheres,” “nanovitamins” and “nanodelivery systems.” Which, yes, all sound kind of ridiculous. One notable company, Zelens, even incorporated buckyballs, the soccer-ball-shaped counterparts of carbon nanotubes, in creams after studies on rat livers found it to be a potent antioxidant. They claim their cream is 100 times more potent than vitamin E at neutralizing free radicals. At $300 for two tablespoons, you’d have to hope so. You’d also have to hope that they use the appropriate buckyball coatings, as raw balls seem to be toxic in studies with fish brains and water fleas.

Sunscreens have received the most nanoattention. Several are made with titanium dioxide or zinc oxide nanoparticles. These two white pigments are known for being opaque, but ground down to the nanoscale they become transparent. Yet they retain their ability to absorb both UVA and UVB light. No more white noses at the beach!

Looking for a fly in the ointment? A toxicity study showed that nanoparticles of titanium dioxide irritated the lungs of rats when delivered in a powder form. No such effects were found for larger particles.

When it comes to face creams, worries are only justified if nanoparticles cross the skin’s barrier into the bloodstream, where they could wreak all kinds of unknown havoc. For the most part, they seem to stay put, even though the average skin pore is 50,000 billionths of a meter wide, large enough for the biggest nanoparticle to hear its own echo in.

Sally Tinkle, a researcher at the National Institutes of Health, has found that particles can sneak through damaged or very firmly massaged skin. Adding to the scary is that the FDA only looks into the safety of products that are already on the market, which has raised a safety warning for some. In their own words, “FDA has only limited authority over some potentially high-risk products, e.g. cosmetics.”

Of course the Cosmetic, Toiletry and Fragrance Association (CTFA) counters that we’ve been putting nanoparticles on our skin for the last two decades. It’s just hip to call stuff nanotech these days, said Alexander Sepper, president of skincare company Bioniva, in a Technology Review article. “When nanotech came and everyone started to claim nanotech, nanotech, nanotech,” the article reports Sepper saying, “of course the marketing people came to us and demanded that we have to accommodate the present situation. My understanding as a scientist is it’s more marketing than science.”

Clean, Warm and Dry
Humans are a dirty, smelly lot. But of course nanotechnology has the cure for our ills – mostly in the form of improved fabrics and wearable materials. Products that use nanoscale silver are the second most plentiful nanoware on store shelves after cosmetics, found as an antibacterial agent in almost 100 products such as socks, food containers, cell phones, toothbrushes, refrigerators and washing machines.

“Silver has been used as an antimicrobial agent for years, decades and centuries,” says Andrew Maynard, chief science advisor to the Wilson Center project. “Nanotechnology has brought two changes: It’s easier to put silver into many products by embedding it within the material or between fibers, and it has increased the surface area dramatically.” More surface area equals more dead bacteria, which sounds great until you realize that silver doesn’t target any particular microbe. Concerns about the ecological effects of releasing silver through wastewater led to a November 2006 declaration that the EPA will regulate products that claim to use silver nanoparticles as antimicrobials.

There is another nanoway to keep your clothes clean – prevent them from getting dirty. California company Nano-Tex creates stain-resistant fabrics by coating fibers with nanoscale whiskers that stand out like the bristles of a pipe cleaner. These repel water-based and organic substances and prevent them from soaking into the fabric where they could stain. The technology is used by dozens of clothes manufacturers from Lands End to Hugo Boss. Similarly, Coolmax, made by Netherlands-based Advansa, has added tiny channels that repel water on one side and attract it on the other, to suck the sweat right off your bod – or so they say.

If warm is what you want, then Aspen Aerogels Nanotechnology has just the ticket. This Massachusetts company has managed the difficult feat of mass producing aerogels – super-insulating gels made of around 95% air. Boeing already uses the aerogels to insulate jet engines; the Department of Defense uses them in Apache helicopters. Next up: your ski boot.

Shinin’ Bright
Many companies are exploiting the superhard, ultrareactive, tight-packing and so-tiny-they-are-clear properties of nanoparticles in coatings such as house paints and car polishes. For example, you can buy a $30 gallon of supposedly mildew-proof paint from Behr, made possible by tiny paint particles that create a super-water-repellent seal. And why not try the Mercedes Benz paint that uses nanoparticles to maintain a clear look and ultraprotective finish for its ultraexpensive cars?

One of the most popular coatings is found on so-called “self-cleaning” glass, pioneered by U.K. company Pilkington Activ. The glass is fitted with a layer of nanoparticles that react with light (at first, it was UV light, but now just plain visible light) to break down dirt and bacteria and repel water like an invisible squeegee.

Food, Gloriously Tiny Food
Researchers have touted nanotech as a revolution in food processing, manufacturing and quality control, making food safer and production more energy efficient. But again, safety is a concern. A 2004 study by the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering in the U.K. actually suggested that nanoingredients in food and food prep be considered as novel chemicals for regulation and safety testing.

Nonetheless, many foods already contain nanoingredients. The most common are just drinks or powders that have their vitamins or nutraceuticals (!) ground to wee tiny sizes, likely meaning a quicker time from consumption to bloodstream and more biological activity. Take these artichoke nanoclusters, sounds good, eh? Many prescription drugs, such as the breast cancer treatment Abraxane, are also milled in ultrafine nanocrystals for a similar reason.

One of the more exotic nanofood products is canola oil. An Israeli company, Sherman Industries, has managed to engineer tiny oil droplets, or micelles, that house a wee bit of phytoesterols (plantlike cholesterols). These in-house chemicals supposedly prevent our digestive system from absorbing cholesterol. So it’s like healthy oil! Too bad there already is healthy oil: the kinds from olives and fish. Never mind, the nanodroplet technology is being used by BASF to encapsulate otherwise insoluble vitamins or antioxidants and put them into drinks like lemonade and spreads like margarine.

Of course, to many these nanoedibles are the most concerning of the whole lot. Tiny particles are free to roam around our bodies after we’ve consumed them. And while everything here is just smaller bits of already known and safe compounds, it’s still hard to convince the skeptics. Like these organic lovers. Are itsy bits of oil more dangerous than bigger globs? Probably not. Are some hazards of nanotech going to slip through our stomach linings unnoticed? At the pace of today’s safety research, probably yes. 

Go and Buy
So, nanodummies no more, you can go into the marketplace and see how the nanoscale is starting to reshape our macro-sized world, hopefully avoiding any megaproblems to your health or the health of your bank balance.