Article: Toxic potential of materials at the nanolevel
Authors: Nel, A;Xia, T;Madler, L;Li, N
Journal: SCIENCE, 311 (5761): 622-627 FEB 3 2006
Addresses: Univ Calif Los Angeles, David Geffen Sch Med, Dept Med, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA.
Univ Calif Los Angeles, David Geffen Sch Med, Dept Med, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA.
Univ Calif Los Angeles, Calif NANOSyst Inst, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA.
Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Chem & Biomol Engn, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA.
Andre Nel talks with ScienceWatch.com and answers a few questions about this month's Fast Moving Fronts paper in the field of Pharmacology & Toxicology.
Why do you think your paper is highly cited?
Our paper is highly cited because it considers the interdisciplinary interactions that are needed for the safe implementation of nanotechnology in humans and the environment. Not only is the topic of nanomaterial safety of great importance to the global economy, industry, regulatory agencies, scientists, and the public at large, but it also introduces a level of complexity that requires a new level of thinking.
Our paper has contributed to the developing insight into this area because of our past experience in air pollution health effects in which knowledge of real-life exposure scenarios to small air pollution particles have led to an understanding of how nanoparticles could possibly induce disease and what investigational tools, physicochemical characterization, biological screening assays, epidemiology, exposure assessment, risk analysis, and regulatory decision-making are required for investigating and dealing with toxicological events at nanoscale level.
This approach allowed us to consider the integration of the scientific disciplines that are required to understand and make appropriate decisions about engineered nanomaterial safety. This multidisciplinary exercise has to consider materials science, chemistry, physics, biology, toxicology, occupational medicine, ecology and ecotoxicology, computer science, social science, and policy formulation.
