Consumers are surrounded by warnings of the dangers contained in everything from baby shampoo to denture cream. Recently there has been growing concern over nanoparticles in sunscreens and mineral make up. Is there real danger here or is this just another overhyped story?
What Are Nanoparticles?
A nanoparticle is a piece of material so small that its size is measured in nanometers or billionths of a meter. As a comparison, a typical nanoparticle is approximately 10,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
The size of nanoparticles is their greatest asset and their greatest health risk. The human body is equipped with defenses designed to keep toxic substances out as they come into contact with our skin, lungs, and intestinal tract.
Nanoparticles are so small they can infiltrate the lungs and intestinal walls, giving the toxins free access to the body. There is some evidence that they may be absorbed directly through the skin as well but the results are inconclusive at this point.
Even non-toxic nanoparticles can cause problems. For example they can get into our lungs but are so small they are not easily cleared by normal mechanisms. This causes the lungs to be overburdened and have to work harder to breathe.
Where Are Nanoparticles Found?
Two common sources of nanoparticles today are sunscreens and mineral make up.
Ironically, nanoparticles used in sunscreen came about because of an effort to avoid toxic materials. Reports of the dangerous effects of benzophenone, homosalate and octyl-methoxycinnamate that some sunscreens use caused many consumers to return to the old-school products containing titanium dioxide and zinc oxide.
However, many people didn’t like how these sunscreens looked and wanted something transparent. Manufacturers discovered that by dispersing the titanium dioxide as nanoparticles, it went on clear while still providing sun protection.
The use of nanoparticles in mineral make up was also an attempt to improve the appearance of the product. Pulverizing the minerals to nano-size gave the cosmetics a smoother, more glowing appearance. Consumers liked the change but didn’t realize there were associated health risks.
How Do You Avoid Nanoparticles?
Numerous research studies have showed the dangerous effects of nanoparticles and there is little doubt that they pose a significant health threat. A movement is underway to have the FDA regulate engineered nanoparticles much more rigorously. Until that time, consumers have to be smart shoppers.
When buying sunscreens that use metal oxides or mineral make up, look for products that don’t use nanoparticles or “micronized” particles. “Non-Micronized” particles are larger than nanoparticles so are safer. Titanium dioxide particles can also be coated with stearic acid to further prevent interaction of the mineral with the body.
Stick with mineral make up that uses titanium dioxide in cream form rather than powder form.
This prevents the particles from being absorbed through the skin or becoming airborne and getting into the lungs. If you are concerned about the health risks of nanoparticles, consider using one of the many great choices in natural and organic cosmetics that allow you to look great without risking your health.
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Help answer the question about nanoparticles
What is a good science project idea using nanoparticles?My friend and I are getting ready for science fair, and because her dad works at this lab, we decided we wanted to do something involving nanoparticles. Unfortunately, we don't know what a good project would be. Anybody have any ideas as to what would be a good science fair project to do involving nanoparticles?
About Author
Author is a freelance copywriter. For more information on safe mineral makeup and organic cosmetics, visit http://www.Lavera.com/.
. I guess you're showing off ! You know in a controlled experiment, there should be minimal difference, as partially explained in the web site below:
"…Although the TRM furnace is equipped for maintaining a controlled atmosphere and this feature was used in this study, the process requires careful attention and is somewhat of a nuisance. Since I did not need to exceed the Curie temperature by much in these experiments, I could not rely on using equilibrium atmospheres to prevent sample oxidation since equilibration is unlikely to occur at such low temperatures.
I tried to eliminating chemical change in the samples during the magnetic experiments by isolating the samples from the atmosphere. The method I chose was to seal the samples in evacuated quartz tubes to minimize the probability of chemical alteration and to provide self-buffering.
The samples were then thermally cycled from room temperature to beyond their Curie temperature until their magnetic properties stabilized. " ………..
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One problem with cancer is that it isn’t one disease, but many. Is this effective against all or most of them?
cancerous cells may perhaps have different absorption ability than normal cells thus only cancerous cells absorbs the nanoparticles. Not sure though. Just a thought.
something that is sooo tiny you cant even see in a microscope.
if this works it would be effective against all types of cancer.
Yes it is same like molecular mass, nanoparticles is description of the size not the compound itself
I would think that nanoparticals are the subelements (microcosms) of nanomaterials…. meaning they are the subunits which comprise the overall nanomaterial (for example with nanotubes, the nanoparticles are the most easily divisible units of the same properties which combine in repeated organization to form the overall structure)… or a nanomaterial could refer to any material which is designed at the nano size level.
I don’t claim to be a doctor, but it seems that the nano particles are programmed to recognize the cancerous cells. Then it’s just a matter of making them move back and forth destroying the cells. I wonder though what happens if they go to the wrong cells, or if there are leftovers in there. Where do they go?
It’s awsome to see that there are these kinds of things in the works. The potential here is huge, and very exciting.
How does it destroy only the cancer cells?
I’m currently doing with nanomagnetic research project, this video has profoundly give me an insight and lot of information. Thanks for the post
I had not heard of that info before.
I would advise you to do what I did – when you wonder about the scientific value of some data you found, run it through the NCBI database. It is the clearinghouse for scientific data.
I queried "platinum nanoparticles cancer" and found 5 publications. It seems there are Phase I studies about platinum nanoparticles, the main advantage seems to be the drug delivery right to the tumor. However, there does NOT seem any data so far that would support any overwhelming optimism, even if the alternative community sees this differently.
Read some of the article summaries yourself, they're quite interesting.