TY - JOUR
T1 - Nanomaterials in the environment, human exposure pathway, and health effects
T2 - A review
AU - Malakar, Arindam
AU - Kanel, Sushil R.
AU - Ray, Chittaranjan
AU - Snow, Daniel D.
AU - Nadagouda, Mallikarjuna N.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2021/3/10
Y1 - 2021/3/10
N2 - Nanomaterials (NMs), both natural and synthetic, are produced, transformed, and exported into our environment daily. Natural NMs annual flux to the environment is around 97% of the total and is significantly higher than synthetic NMs. However, synthetic NMs are considered to have a detrimental effect on the environment. The extensive usage of synthetic NMs in different fields, including chemical, engineering, electronics, and medicine, makes them susceptible to be discharged into the atmosphere, various water sources, soil, and landfill waste. As ever-larger quantities of NMs end up in our environment and start interacting with the biota, it is crucial to understand their behavior under various environmental conditions, their exposure pathway, and their health effects on human beings. This review paper comprises a large portion of the latest research on NMs and the environment. The article describes the natural and synthetic NMs, covering both incidental and engineered NMs and their behavior in the natural environment. The review includes a brief discussion on sampling strategies and various analytical tools to study NMs in complex environmental matrices. The interaction of NMs in natural environments and their pathway to human exposure has been summarized. The potential of NMs to impact human health has been elaborated. The nanotoxicological effect of NMs based on their inherent properties concerning to human health is also reviewed. The knowledge gaps and future research needs on NMs are reported. The findings in this paper will be a resource for researchers working on NMs all over the world to understand better the challenges associated with NMs in the natural environment and their human health effects.
AB - Nanomaterials (NMs), both natural and synthetic, are produced, transformed, and exported into our environment daily. Natural NMs annual flux to the environment is around 97% of the total and is significantly higher than synthetic NMs. However, synthetic NMs are considered to have a detrimental effect on the environment. The extensive usage of synthetic NMs in different fields, including chemical, engineering, electronics, and medicine, makes them susceptible to be discharged into the atmosphere, various water sources, soil, and landfill waste. As ever-larger quantities of NMs end up in our environment and start interacting with the biota, it is crucial to understand their behavior under various environmental conditions, their exposure pathway, and their health effects on human beings. This review paper comprises a large portion of the latest research on NMs and the environment. The article describes the natural and synthetic NMs, covering both incidental and engineered NMs and their behavior in the natural environment. The review includes a brief discussion on sampling strategies and various analytical tools to study NMs in complex environmental matrices. The interaction of NMs in natural environments and their pathway to human exposure has been summarized. The potential of NMs to impact human health has been elaborated. The nanotoxicological effect of NMs based on their inherent properties concerning to human health is also reviewed. The knowledge gaps and future research needs on NMs are reported. The findings in this paper will be a resource for researchers working on NMs all over the world to understand better the challenges associated with NMs in the natural environment and their human health effects.
KW - Environmental impact
KW - Health effects
KW - Human exposure
KW - Nanomaterials
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85096828138&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85096828138&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143470
DO - 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143470
M3 - Review article
C2 - 33248790
AN - SCOPUS:85096828138
SN - 0048-9697
VL - 759
JO - Science of the Total Environment
JF - Science of the Total Environment
M1 - 143470
ER -