Re:Carbon nanotubes found in children’s lungs
by sitkack on Wednesday October 21, 2015 @11:20PM
(#10430222)
I don't have the finger bandwidth to caveat every statement I make. Yes _new_ nanoparticles. I could make a new nanocoating, apply it to everything and then when it turns out to not by safe, my Inc can fold and I can continue on my merry existence. Nanoparticle toxocology is a complex field. And these _new_ substances penetrate cells walls very readily. It isn't antiscience to question the harm these things can do.
Since long before Man, of course.
Being afraid of "nanoparticles" is something like being afraid of "chemicals"... in the fully silly sense. You need to be afraid of something specific, not the general term.
And I'm actually pretty down with a "presumed guilty until innocent" for specific, demonstrably new nanoparticles. (Most, if not all, carbon forms aren't going to be able to meet that bar, BTW.) Given the history of science and biology, that's not irrational. Generalized fear of anything "nanoparticle" is, though. The biological world has been nanoparticling just as it's been nanomachining for a lot longer than we've been here to worry about it.