Scientists worried that nanoparticles in paint harmful

Saturday August 22, 2009

Experts have found that nanoparticles can be hazardous to health after seven women working in a paint factory with the substance became sick with serious lung diseases and two died.

Nanoparticles measure one billionth of a metres and are found in paints, sunscreen, medicine, non-sweat socks and tennis racquets.

Carried out by the Occupational Disease and Clinical Toxicology Department at Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing and the Chinese Centre for Disease Control, the study told the European Respiratory Journal that nanoparticles were found deep in the lungs of the women who became ill.

The team's lead, Yuguo Song reported that all of the women were admitted to hospital for respiratory problems over the course of a few months, in conjunction with itchy eruptions of the skin on their face and arms.

They were found to have a build-up of liquid around their heart and lungs that was untreatable. The patients' lung tissue was also found to have nanoparticles.
Yuguo Song believes that these particles must originate in the polyacrylate-based paints used by the women at work.

"The workers, of peasant origin, were also completely unaware of workplace health and safety regulations ad of the potential toxicity of the materials they were handling," said Yuguo Song. "Their only protection, used sporadically, was cotton gauze masks.

"It is clear that the symptoms, the examination results and the progress of the disease in our patients differ markedly from respiratory pathologies induced by paint inhalation."

He also said that the lung condition continued to worsen even though the women were no longer subjected to the paint and no other people fell ill after the machinery at the factory was stopped.

The researchers cannot be 100 per cent sure that the nanoparticles caused the illness however they maintained that: "we call on scientists throughout the world to work together and address this new challenge."

Chief Science Advisor, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars in Washington DC stated that researchers have not identified what the nanoparticles are composed from and how much the patients had inhaled.

However, he still asserted that: "this is the first clear case where there is an association between someone breathing in nanoparticles in the workplace and getting seriously ill.

"People should take this very seriously. The international research community should be galvanised by this."

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