Small wonders: a blessing or a curse

Australian homeowners were baffled when new steel roofs developed rust in finger and elbow-shaped spots, a year into their 50-year guarantee.

Weather, steel, or leaks were not to blame. Instead, investigators found that the sunscreen worn by builders who installed the roofs had caused the corrosion.

The sunscreen contained tiny particles of titanium dioxide, which is added to sunscreen to make it transparent. When combined with sunlight it aged the steel 15 years in 18 months.

Titanium dioxide has long been a content in sunscreen. But in its nano form, it was devastatingly active, which caused the rapid corrosion.

Dr Simon Brown, the associate professor of physics at the University of Canterbury, says it is one of many bizarre examples of the unintended consequences of nano-technology - the manipulation of matter to a billionth of a metre to make new materials with novel properties.

Nano particles are called a "wonder ingredient" in manufacturing. They are lauded by scientists as the next industrial revolution and are expected to provide breakthroughs in energy, medicine, and electronics. The market in nano-tech is forecast to exceed $1.5 trillion globally by 2012.

But with new properties come new risks.

"The very newness of nano-tech means some of these materials will have surprising results," said Brown.

Sunscreen and other cosmetic products containing nano particles have been stripped from the shelves in Australia and Europe.

But in New Zealand women continue to apply potentially harmful face creams, because untested products remain on sale. And regulatory bodies are in "snooze mode", according to a report by the Sustainability Council released exclusively to the Weekend Herald.

The council sees there may be beneficial applications, but report author Stephanie Howard urges regulators to catch up. She says the commercialisation of nano-technology in New Zealand is racing ahead of regulation.

"But getting the benefits won't come from giving the technology a regulatory holiday," she said.

The report says the use of nano materials is already ubiquitous; they are in at least 1000 products on shelves around the world.

Some of these materials are deemed safe. But Howard says two potentially harmful nano particles - fullerenes and nanosilver - are in products sold in New Zealand.

Her preliminary scan of New Zealand shelves focused on products which were likely to involve human or environmental exposure. Cosmetic products containing nanomaterials were investigated, as well as products containing nanosilver that could release during use (see accompanying story).

She cites anti-ageing face creams by Perricone MD and Dr Brandt's as being labelled by the manufacturer to contain fullerenes.

Fullerenes are tiny, hollow, soccer-ball shaped particles which the European cosmetics industry has pledged not to use until more is known about their safety. Concern that fullerenes could be harmful is widespread in the scientific community.

The scientists awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering fullerenes have warned against applying them to the skin until further research is done.

A British Royal Commission on Environment Pollution has classified fullerenes as "potentially harmful" and among four nano materials that gave rise to "the greatest concern".

Australian researchers were concerned that in nano form, fullerenes penetrate more deeply into the skin. Depending on the toxicity of the particle, this could pose a health risk.

Despite these concerns, laws preventing their inclusion in products are "wafer-thin", says Howard.

"The regulatory action against them is as invisible as the particles."

The Environment Risk Management Authority and the Ministry of Health are responsible for monitoring and forcing compliance. The only specific legal requirement for cosmetic companies is that they report to Erma their use or importation of any product containing nano materials.

This ruling appears to be futile. No notifications have been received by Erma to date, despite evidence that the products are on our shelves.

Cosmetics Toiletry Fragrance Association (CTFA) spokesman Garth Wyllie says the absence of notifications is because there is "no hard evidence of risks in nano materials ... at this point".

He says any company failing to report is exposing itself to prosecution. But he feels there's no reason at this stage for stronger regulation.

Howard says self-regulation isn't working. The cosmetics industry is not required by law to include nano ingredients on product labels.

"New Zealand women can't make informed choices. There's no product labelling or easily accessible information for consumers about nano in cosmetics. So the risks are being carried by the community," she says.

The advantage gained by the addition of fullerenes may not be worth the risk, she says.

"Most nano-tech activity around the world is still in the lab, and the products we have identified don't offer any real advantage. Yes, there is a lot of hype around the technology, but they are examples of products for which there are good existing alternatives."

The CTFA is reluctant to name the nano materials in its products, saying it could scare off customers. It says such a requirement would be based on emotive reactions rather than scientific concerns.

In a letter to Erma, the association said adding nano alongside any ingredients would damage consumer perception on the safety of products without scientific justification.

Robert Hickson, the Ministry of Research Science and Technology's acting director of emerging technologies, says the country is taking its lead from the international community and is actively involved in an OECD working party looking into the health and environmental safety implications of nano-technology.

He points out the massive scale of the task - methods to test whether nano particles exist in products are not even available in New Zealand, let alone instruments which measured toxicity.

The Government has also commissioned a study to determine whether nanoscale materials trigger gaps in existing law. This process is time-consuming, says the Sustainability Council.

Meanwhile, products should not be going on women's faces. The council wants nanocosmetics to be removed from our shelves, and a freeze on the release of further products.

The report says the regulating bodies have been in denial for too long.

"The government has known for some time about the presence of nanoproducts on the New Zealand market.

"Already in 2006, the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology reported that a range of products currently in New Zealand are likely to contain manufactured nano materials, but that no complete list was available because nano products do not require labelling.

"At that time, [the ministry] warned that there is little room for complacency and that the drive to commercialise nano-technologies should not overwhelm good governance."

"[The ministry] identified the need for inclusive forms of public engagement that recognised that engagement should extend beyond questions of safety and avoid simply paying lip service to the issues."

However, the report said, "little has materialised from this commendable vision".

Brown is concerned that only a disaster will awaken the regulatory bodies.

"There is going to have to be some sort of crisis before the departments take a serious interest in these things. It's another example of us lagging a long way behind Australia."

He says lagging behind in regulation is not only unsafe, it makes poor business sense.

"The irony is that regulations are actually good for business. It doesn't make any sense to develop a product in any environment in which you don't know what the rules are going to be."

Regulating would not mean tempering the excitement scientists have for nano-tech, but creating a safe and robust testing ground for research to flourish. That would allow the science fiction future of nano-tech to become a reality.

"I'm agnostic about what the long-term future holds," Brown says. "I think that there will be benefits from nano-technology, but I'm equally sure they are going to be some downsides.

"Nano-tech enthusiasts think it will save the world - they are visions of better solar power, massive medical breakthroughs. But right now, New Zealand is doing very little to maximise the benefits."

THINKING SMALL

* Nano-technology involves the creation of materials as small as a single molecule. Some are as minuscule as a billionth of a metre.
* Nano particles already exist in the natural world, in air, water and other matter. But scientists can now manipulate them to create novel materials. Many products already contain nano particles. They are added to sunscreen to help absorb UV light.
* Clothing firms use nanosilver as an anti-bacterial agent, and industrial and military firms have used nano materials to make strong armour or car parts. The cosmetic industry use fullerenes (pictured above) in anti-ageing creams. The global market for nano-tech is expected to be $1.5 trillion by 2012.
* Scientists bill nano-technology as the next industrial revolution. But the novel properties which make nano particles so useful are mostly untamed, and carry many unknowns.