Toxicity, transformations and transport of engineered nanoparticles in soils: New approaches to detect and characterize environmental risks

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Nanomaterials are used in the fabrication of paints, coatings, cosmetics, and many other consumer goods. Many other applications of engineered nanoparticles (ENP) are emerging or are expected in the near future, including delivery of nutrients or pesticides in agricultural applications. Although nanotechnologies promise many social and economic benefits, recent reports published in North America and Europe underline the potential environmental and public health risks linked to this "nano" revolution. A portion of ENP will end up in the natural environment (e.g., as a result of accidental spills or deliberately introduced for soil and groundwater remediation). As there are no specific regulations to deal with these novel substances, there is an urgent need to better understand the consequences of nanotechnology on ecological health, in order to set protective regulations that do not unjustly penalize Canadian industries. In the interest of fully assessing environmental risk, we need to be able to detect ENP in terrestrial ecosystems and predict their transport, persistence and bioavailability in this complex environment. This strategic project aims to provide regulators and industries with novel insights and tools needed to assess and predict the transport and transformations of ENP in soils, and to evaluate their toxicity. The work will include studies on two classes of ENP: (i) inorganic nanomaterials (nTiO2, nZnO, and nAg) and (ii) polymeric nanocapsules designed for crop protection applications (nCAP).We also propose to develop genomic based methods for detection and quantification of these ENP in the complex soil matrix. The novel data and mechanistic models that we will generate will greatly improve our understanding of the environmental risks of ENP. The models developed during this project can be linked with multi-criteria decision analysis and environmental risk assessment models. Hence, the knowledge acquired during this project will be of great strategic value to Canadian industries such as ViveNano and will provide government agencies like Health Canada, Environment Canada, and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada with better decision frameworks and policies to protect human and ecosystem health.