Further to my earlier post on the latest NanoToxScare story, the Daily Telegraph has helpfully published a list of products that contain nanoparticles which neatly illustrates the need for risk assessment as it includes beer, aeroplanes and tennis rackets, all of which involve other risks than those posed by a few nanoparticles (and that’s before we start thinking about possible exposure mechanisms).

Examples of products that contain nanoparticles:
Socks
Sunscreen
Towels
Wound dressings
Beer
Food packaging
Anti-ageing creams
Self-cleaning glass used on St Pancras Station roof
Aeroplanes
Computers
Tennis rackets
Razor blades
Medical tools
Food supplements

The issue is especially relevant to sunscreens, where we are effectively trading one set of risks such as DNA damage from PBSA which is also used as a UV filter for another, while not using any protection poses an even greater risk.

Richard Jones at Soft Machines reports that Andrew Johnson, of the UK’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology at Wallingford estimates that “130 tonnes of nano-titanium dioxide a year is used in sunscreens in the UK” and probably most of this ends up in the water supply aftre being washed off in the shower.

A couple of points struck me as odd about this. Firstly, a traditional British summer (with or without climate change) consists of leaden skies and heavy showers pierced by an occisional shaft of sunlight and any susnscreen I use invariably ends up in the water supply of Spain, California or China. Secondly, sales of nanoparticle sunscreens seem to be pretty much negligable.