Human health implications of nanomaterial exposure

THILO PAPP1, DIETMAR SCHIFFMANN1, DIETER WEISS1, VINCE CASTRANOVA2, VAL VALLYATHAN2, & QAMAR RAHMAN3

Published in: journal Nanotoxicology, Volume 2, Issue 1 March 2008 , pages 9 - 27

1Institute of Cell Biology & Biosystems Technology, Rostock University Rostock, Germany, 2National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA, and 3Dean Research & Development Integral University, Lucknow, India

Abstract

Nanotechnology presents countless opportunities to develop new and improved consumer products for the benefit of society. However, as the industrial production and use of nanotechnology products continue to expand at a fast scale, potential human health concerns and ecological safeguards for the environment need to be addressed. Health risk assessment involving different animal species for multi-organ toxicity complimented with molecular investigations in cells is essential for investigating the potential toxic effects of nanomaterials. The purpose of this review is to present the current state of knowledge regarding the potential routes of human exposure to nanomaterials and their biological health effects. Although anthropogenic nanosized particles emitted in the environment are known to produce adverse human health in susceptible populations, much remains to be explored. Exposures can occur from direct exposure or from the use of commercial products made of nanomaterials. Safe manufacturing guidelines for prevention of exposures and recommendations on safe handling and use need to be established on a proactive basis to prevent adverse outcomes.

New Nature Nanotechnology Editorial: Social and natural sciences need to get their act together

more here

Sonic activation of molecularly-targeted nanoparticles accelerates transmembrane lipid delivery to cancer cells through contact-mediated mechanisms: implications for enhanced local drug delivery.

morehere

European Commission is world’s largest public investor in nanotechnology

more here and here

new column of mine is out Bionics

seehere

USA President’s Council on Bioethics Meeting, session on nanotechnology

President’s Council on Bioethics Meeting, session on nanotechnology
When: Friday, June 29, 2007, 8:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m
Where: Hay-Adams Hotel, 16th & H Streets NW, Washington DC
see also here

New column out: NBICS and Other Convergences: The Paralympics, the Olympics, Human Enhancement Technology and the Doping Discourse

More at source

Another of my biweekly columns out

New column here
The column is now published by two sources: Innovationwatch.com (every 15th of a month) and Healthwrights (every 30th of a month)

another of my columns out

Neurodiversity, Neuroenhancement, Neurodisease, and Neurobusiness see here

Is the world ready for cyborg athletes?

more at source

Buy your portable brain-computer interface here

If you can’t wait until next year to get your hands on a Project Epoc EEG cap, never fear: a German company called g.tec (Guger Technologies) is now offering the world’s first commercially available brain computer interface (BCI).
more at source

TR10: Neuron Control

Karl Deisseroth’s genetically engineered “light switch,” which lets scientists turn selected parts of the brain on and off, may help improve treatments for depression and other disorders.
more at source

references for Psychological Enhancements: The Reluctance to Enhance Fundamental Traits

JASON RIIS
New York University - Stern School of Business
JOSEPH P. SIMMONS
Yale School of Management
GEOFFREY P. GOODWIN
Princeton University - Department of Psychology March 1, 2007
Abstract:
Four studies examined young healthy individuals’ willingness to take drugs intended to enhance various social, emotional, and cognitive abilities. We found that people were much more reluctant to enhance traits believed to be highly fundamental to the self (e.g., social comfort) than traits considered less fundamental (e.g., concentration ability). Moral acceptability of a trait enhancement strongly predicted people’s desire to legalize those enhancements, but not their willingness to take those enhancements. Ad taglines that framed enhancements as enabling rather than enhancing the fundamental self increased people’s interest in a fundamental enhancement, and eliminated the preference for non-fundamental over fundamental enhancements.
more at source

Nanotech could revolutionise global healthcare

Nanotechnology has the potential to generate “enormous” health benefits for the more than five billion people living in the developing world, according to a leading professor of medicine.
more at source

My comment: Its much too simple as its outlined in the article more drugs more technology do not good as such if the societal framework (not just related to businesses) is changed. But that does not just mean to direct more tech research priorities towards the needs of the poor. It also means to look at whether new research is actually needed and whether existing tech and sciences can deal with the problem. We have today drugs sciences and technologies who do not reach the people in need. Further more often social changes are much more effective in fighting diseases and preventing the increase of people with a given disease and to make the lives of the poor better than just producing more drugs or technologies.

To slow the progress of Parkinson’s disease, doctors planted electrodes deep in my brain. Then they turned on the juice.

from wired more at source

Nanoparticle Research Offers Hope of Artificial Retinas, Prostheses

Here’s how nano research might pave the way to the development of artificial retinas based on photosensitive nanoparticles:

The world’s first direct electrical link between nerve cells and photovoltaic nanoparticle films has been achieved by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) and the University of Michigan. The development opens the door to applying the unique properties of nanoparticles to a wide variety of light-stimulated nerve-signaling devices — including the possible development of a nanoparticle-based artificial retina.

Nanoparticles are artificially created bits of matter not much bigger than individual atoms. Their behavior is controlled by the same forces that shape molecules; they also exhibit the bizarre effects associated with quantum mechanics. Scientists can exploit these characteristics to custom-build new materials “from the bottom up” with characteristics such as compatibility with living cells and the ability to turn light into tiny electrical currents that can produce responses in nerves.

more at source

Human Rights for the 21st Century:Rights of the Person to Technological Self-Determination

IHEU- Appignani Humanist
Center for Bioethics and

Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies

present

Human Rights for the 21st Century:

Rights of the Person to Technological Self-Determination

New York City

May 11-13, 2007

Cocktail Reception: Friday May 11, 6:00 – 9:00 pm

Location: TBD

Conference: Saturday May 12 and Sunday May 13, 9:00 am – 3:45 pm

Location: 777 UN Plaza, 2nd Floor, New York City, NY 10017

The 2007 conference “Human Rights for the 21st Century: Rights of the Person to Technological Self-Determination” will focus on (a) human rights in the context of bodily autonomy as well as reproductive and cognitive liberties, (b) emerging biotechnologies which may contribute to the exercise of such rights, and (c) challenges to the essentialist ideas of human identity underlying some human rights discourse.

The conference will address the various roles of emerging technologies and other products of scientific progress in today’s society, as well as their implications for the pursuit of bioethics. Potential topics to be considered include nanotechnology in medical treatment, novel vaccines against addictive behaviors, Internet-enabled social networking and engineering, designer genetic engineering, novel transplantable tissue and organ generation, neuroscience and its application to medical advances, as well as reproductive science and women’s rights. The conference intends to provide an open forum for interaction between various stakeholders in this debate, including those representing public, private, and international sectors.

These topics will be addressed through paper presentations and panel discussions. The deadline for the submission of papers is March 20, 2007. Accepted papers will be peer-reviewed and considered for publication in the Journal of Evolution and Technology (http://jetpress.org). Virtual registrations will be also available for those unable to attend the Conference who still wish to submit a paper for review and possible publication.

———————————————————————

Registration for presenters and early registrants is $50, payable by May 1, 2007.

Registration fee includes attendance at the two-day conference.

Cocktail reception: $15 extra.

The conference fee for students who attend is $25, for the general public (after May 1) $75.

The address for the submission of papers, registration fees (by check, payable to “IHEU”) or inquiries:

IHEU

P.O. Box 4104 Grand Central Station New York, NY 10162

Phone: (212) 687 3324 analita@iheu.org

Or by Paypal (online) to

http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/rights2007

Registration forms and other details will be posted on:

http://www.iheu.org/bioethics and at http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/rights2007

———————————————————-

Accommodation packages are available, on a first-come-first-serve basis, from the Pickwick Hotel, E 51st Street and Second Avenue. Tel: 212 355 0300, e-mail: info@pickwickarms.com.

Fifteen hotel rooms have been booked at Millenium UN Plaza Hotel New York, United Nations Plaza, 44th Street between First and Second Avenues, New York,NY, USA 10017-3575 Tel: 212 758 1234 fax: 212 702 5051 reservation: 866 866 8086 email: unplaza@mhrmail.com. Please quote Conference name when booking.

———————————————————-

The IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics focuses on raising awareness of bioethical issues confronting the international community and developing and implementing an international program for lobbying. The Center is a new initiative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union. IHEU holds a special consultative status with ECOSOC at the United Nations, a general consultative status with UNICEF and the Council of Europe as well as operational relations with UNESCO in Paris.

The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies examines the social implications of technological progress, promoting public policies that distribute the benefits and reduce the risks of accelerating innovation. The IEET is chaired by Dr. Nick Bostrom of Oxford University, and served by Dr. James Hughes of Trinity College (Hartford CT) as its Executive Director. The thirteen Fellows of the IEET span expertise from nanotechnology, neurotechnology, biotechnology and information science to bioethics, philosophy and health policy. The IEET publishes the Journal of Evolution and Technology (jetpress.org) and hosts the Changesurfer podcast.

Ultrastrong Carbon-Nanotube Muscles

Artificial muscles made from carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger than human muscles.
Read more at Source

Driving a Wheelchair with Your Shirt

Adaptive, sensor-laden garments could provide a new way for quadriplegics to control their wheelchairs. The system, which is still in an early stage of development, identifies the ideal set of movements that can be employed as control commands for each individual user. “We think this will benefit the most difficult patients, such as those who can move only their head or shoulders,” says Alon Fishbach, a scientist at Northwestern who is among those developing the device.
Link to Source

Light-sensitive photoswitches could restore sight to blind retinas

(Nanowerk News) A research center newly created by the University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) aims to put light-sensitive switches in the body’s cells that can be flipped on and off as easily as a remote control operates a TV.
Optical switches like these could trigger a chemical reaction, initiate a muscle contraction, activate a drug or stimulate a nerve cell - all at the flash of a light.
One major goal of the UC Berkeley-LBNL Nanomedicine Development Center is to equip cells of the retina with photoswitches, essentially making blind nerve cells see, restoring light sensitivity in people with degenerative blindness such as macular degeneration.
“We’re asking the question, ‘Can you control biological nanomolecules - in other words, proteins - with light?’” said center director and neurobiologist Ehud Y. Isacoff, professor of molecular and cell biology and chair of the Graduate Group in Biophysics at UC Berkeley. “If we can control them by light, then we could develop treatments for eye or skin diseases, even blood diseases, that can be activated by light. This challenge lies at the frontier of nanomedicine.”

Read more at source