NER: Identifying and Regulating Environmental Impacts of Nanomaterials

该提案是对NSF 04-043类纳米科学与工程倡议的响应。这项研究属于“纳米尺度进步的社会和教育影响”这一领域。确定纳米材料对环境造成的影响和风险的早期研究对于将利益攸关方的注意力集中在真正的风险而不是那些未经科学数据证实的风险至关重要。以前对纳米材料进行正式环境风险评估的尝试因缺乏毒理学数据而受阻，从而极大地阻碍了环境风险感知领域及其与公众的沟通。这里提出了一种广泛的跨学科方法，通过在纳米材料的生命周期中开发相关场景，从合成到制造、应用，以及释放到环境中并结合到生物体中，来确定纳米材料对环境的影响和风险。这种方法以与工程纳米颗粒的基础科学、技术和毒性相辅相成的方式，利用监管结构的背景，制定纳米颗粒释放和与环境相互作用的情景。将应用一系列标准方法，如生命周期方法、分层全息模型和统计方法，以确定并可能对可能表征专门环境中人为纳米颗粒运输的潜在风险进行评级。这些方案将侧重于目前以每月几吨的能力制造的纳米材料，例如面体内金属富勒烯(露娜纳米材料，VA)；碳纳米管(碳纳米技术)；以及二氧化钛纳米颗粒(杜邦)。这些情景将包括评估当前的监管结构将如何处理这些紧急风险，以及如何改进这一过程。由于以下原因，拟议的研究具有特别重要的意义和新颖性：它使用情景开发方法来量化风险。在像纳米技术这样的早期领域，出现了各种各样的可能情景，这种方法是新颖的，而且对于推动该领域的发展是必要的，特别是因为这种方法与只有有限的毒理学数据可用是一致的。将监管结构纳入风险识别和排序方法，作为提高或消除纳米技术造成的风险的背景，是新颖的，对广泛接受纳米技术至关重要。在风险识别方法中结合本地和全球系统层面的影响是一种必要和大胆的做法。最后，该方法将环境效益包括在风险识别的情景中。在其更广泛的影响中，使能够影响普通公众(环境和消费者团体)、监管机构(EPA、FDA、NIOSH)和企业的科学知情交易区是拟议工作的核心目标。教育和毒性案例研究可以促进监管和公众对纳米技术的感知，这对该领域的技术进步至关重要。一名毕业生和一名本科生集中参与了这个项目。

This proposal was received in response to Nanoscale Science and Engineering initiative, NSF 04-043, category NER. This research falls under the area of, "Societal and Educational Implications of Advances on the Nanoscale." Early studies on identifying environmental impacts and risks posed by nanomaterials are vital to focus the attention of stakeholders on real risks versus those unsubstantiated by scientific data. Prior attempts at formal environmental risk assessment on nanomaterials have been stymied by a paucity of toxicological data, thereby greatly hampering the field of environmental risk perception and its communication to the general public. A broad interdisciplinary approach is proposed here to identify environmental impacts and risks posed by nanomaterials through development of pertinent scenarios within their life cycle, from synthesis to manufacturing, application, and release into the environment and incorporation into an organism. This approach uses the context of the regulatory structure in a complementary manner with the fundamental science, technology and toxicity of engineered nanoparticles to develop scenarios for nanoparticle release and interaction with the environment. An array of standard methodologies such as life cycle approaches, hierarchical holographic models, and statistical methods will be applied to identify and possibly rank potential risks that may characterize the transport of anthropogenic nanoparticles within specialized environments. The scenarios will focus on nanomaterials currently manufactured in several tonnages per month capacities, such as endohedral metallo-fullerenes (Luna Nanomaterials, VA); carbon nanotubes (Carbon Nanotechnologies); and titania nanoparticles (Dupont). These scenarios will include assessment of how the current regulatory structure would deal with these emergent risks, and how that process might be improved. The proposed research is particularly significant and novel due to the following reasons: It uses the methodology of scenario development to quantify risk. In an early-stage field such as nanotechnology, which presents a wide variety of possible scenarios, the approach is novel and necessary to move the field ahead, especially since this approach is consistent with the availability of only limited toxicological data. Including the regulatory structure in the risk identification and ranking methodology, as a context to elevate or eliminate risks posed by nanotechnology, is novel and vital for widespread acceptance of nanotechnology. Combining local and global system-level impacts within the risk identification methodology is a necessary and bold approach. Finally, the approach includes environmental benefits within scenarios for the risk identification. Among its broader impacts, enabling scientifically informed trading zones that impact the general public (environmental and consumer groups), regulators (EPA, FDA, NIOSH), and businesses is a central objective of the proposed work. Educational and toxicity case studies that can advance regulation and public perception of nanotechnology are vital for technological advancement of this field. A graduate and an undergraduate student are centrally involved in the project.