Effects of nanotechnology on health and environment

Nanotechnology presents opportunities to create new and better products. It has the potential to improve assessment and prevention of environmental risks. However, there are unanswered questions about the impacts of nanomaterials and nanoproducts on human health, safety and the environment. This paper describes the issues that should be considered to ensure that society benefits from advances in environmental protection that nanotechnology may offer, and to understand and address any potential risks from environmental exposure to nanomaterials. Attempts have been made in this work to answer 1) How nanoparticles might change over time once present in the environment, 2) What effect they might have on organisms and 3) What effect they might have on human health.