While always a potentially troubling outcome of new things that so often don’t become known until after the fact, this can help create another industry of binding the nano particles more closely and permanently in the commodities whose properties they change.
Let’s hope UC Davis gets the nod to do the related research.
Tiny silver particles in clothing may lead to pollution, research suggests
By Carrie Peyton Dahlberg - cpeytondahlberg@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PDT Monday, April 7, 2008
In the unknowns of emerging nanotechnology, researchers are wondering if the science behind trendy no-smell socks, underwear and hunting gear might create unintended consequences in the environment.
Just a few simulated washings, for example, can pull nanosilver out of new socks that rely on it for killing odors, researchers said Sunday. That action sets the substance free to travel into wastewater and perhaps into fertilizer.
That prospect underscores the importance of studying nanosized materials that are increasingly a part of clothing and medical, electronic, and other consumer products, said UC Davis professor Alexandra Navrotsky.
"As a society, we should be doing research on these effects ideally before products go to market, not after," said Navrotsky, who heads a campus nanomaterials research unit.
University of California, Davis, is competing for a five-year, $25 million National Science Foundation grant to create a center devoted to studying the environmental impacts of nanomaterials, so small they are measured in billionths of a meter.
The campus, which survived the first cut when 30 grant applicants where whittled to 10, could learn later this month whether it is among three semifinalists.
