Nanotoxicity: Causes, adverse effects

Nanotoxicity is the branch of toxicology that studies the possible negative impacts and effects of nanoparticles on our health, living beings, environment, and ecological system. Nanotoxicity finds out the adverse effects of nanomaterials on living systems. The main reasons for nanotoxicity, health issues caused by it as well ecological impacts have been discussed in this blog.

Reasons of Nanotoxicity

Nanoparticles show serious health issues. The reason for such negative effects are listed below:

  1. When the size of the material decreases to a nanoscopic scale, its reactivity increases significantly and becomes bio-reactive.
  2. Due to their small size, they easily enter the body by various routes and accumulate in the cell junctions.

Health issue of Nanomaterials

Once it enters our body, its toxicity depends on the shape, shape, chemical composition of nanomaterials, and location of their distribution. Some cytotoxic effects are listed below:

  1. Necrosis: In necrosis, Cell death occurs due to cell lysis or cell membrane lysis
  2. Apoptosis: In apoptosis, Cell death occurs due to the suppression of cell division
  3. Genotoxicity/Mutagenicity: It leads to mutation and finally causes cancer.

Effects on the living system

Toxicity depends on shape, size, and functionality as well as composition. Common routes of exposure to nanomaterials are given as:

  • Respiratory tract: Nanomaterial reaches to lungs causing asthma
  • Dermal absorption: it enters into the blood vessel via cream powder causing skin cancer, blood cancer, etc.
  • Oral route: We can engulf nanomaterials Via food materials and reach the intestine. These are absorbed and enters the bloodstream and reaches the various sensitive organ of the body causing harmful disorder.

Environmental effects

Nanomaterials are rapidly being used in many daily used products like shampoo, electronic devices, etc. These are finally dumped into our environment. So, nanoparticles get transferred from one biotic to another biotic level and from one abiotic to biotic level through different physiological mechanisms.

Ecological Nanotoxicity

It has adverse effects on the aquatic ecosystem. It has very toxic to some algae, bacteria, and fish.
Carbon nanotubes cause brain cancers in certain aquatic animals. Exposure to TiO2 nanoparticles causes growth retardation and reproduction defects. It shows biocidal action to Phytoplankton and Zooplankton.

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