Ecotoxicity and transport of nanoparticles released from commercial products

纳米技术既令人兴奋，又令人怀疑。一方面，通过开发纳米颗粒的独特性质，存在着巨大的技术机会。另一方面，人们担心纳米粒子在释放到环境中时会对人类和生态健康产生不利影响。不幸的是，工程纳米颗粒(ENPs)对土壤和地下环境的风险尚不清楚，部分原因是缺乏对它们从商业产品中释放的基本科学了解，以及它们的生态毒性和地下运输。关于从商业产品中释放ENP的知识有限，因此释放的ENP的特征和可能的环境浓度的量化有限。此外，毒性、命运和运输 迄今完成的工作是使用供应商提供的原始ENPs完成的，没有考虑从商业产品中释放的ENPs的真实特性。最后，到目前为止，ENP毒性研究通常侧重于单一生物体测试系统，而ENPs与社区一级生态系统生物组成部分的相互作用尚未被捕捉到。这项拟议的研究将试图通过确定选定的ENPs的潜在环境水平、量化选定的ENPs在多孔介质中的迁移以及评估选定的ENPs在土壤和湿地系统中的生态毒性和归宿来填补这些知识空白。政策制定者迫切需要这里提出的工作，以便就纳米技术的使用作出知情的决定，并使加拿大能够从纳米技术的应用中受益。这些信息将用于广泛的环境纳米技术领域。这个 该项目将支持六名暑期学生、六名研究生和两名博士后研究员。这项研究将为加拿大和全世界围绕纳米技术的政策制定提供宝贵的信息。

Nanotechnology is met with both excitement and scepticism. On the one hand there are tremendous technological opportunities through the exploitation of the unique properties of nanoparticles. On the other hand, there is concern that nanoparticles will have adverse effects on human and ecological health when they are released to the environment. Unfortunately, the risks of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) to soil and subsurface environments are as yet unknown, limited, in part, by a lack of basic scientific understanding of their release from commercial products, as well as their ecotoxicity and subsurface transport. Limited knowledge exists regarding ENP release from commercial products, as such released ENP characteristics and quantification of possible environmental concentrations is limited. Furthermore toxicity, fate, and transport work completed to date has been performed with pristine ENPs, as received from the supplier, without consideration of the true characteristics of ENPs released from commercial products. Finally ENP toxicity studies to date have typically focused on single organism testing systems whereas the interaction of ENPs with the biological components of ecosystems at the community level has not been captured. This proposed study will attempt to fill these knowledge gaps by determining potential environmental levels of selected ENPs, quantifying the transport of selected ENPs in porous media and evaluating the ecotoxicity and fate of selected ENPs in soil and wetland systems. The work proposed herein is urgently needed by policy makers to make informed decisions related to the use of nanotechnology and enable Canada to benefit from nanotechnology applications. This information will be used in a wide range of environmental nanotechnology fields. The project will support six summer students, six graduate students, and two postdoctoral fellows. This study will provide invaluable information for policy development surrounding nanotechnology both in Canada and throughout the world.