
Carbon nanotubes found in children’s lungs - sageabilly
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28370-carbon-nanotubes-found-in-childrens-lungs-for-the-first-time/
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achow
More I see these, the more it makes me wonder if we understand enough about
the impact of 'Nano materials' on the health of living species. Sometime back
there was some discussion around how graphene being so minuscule, can
penetrate human tissues in a a way that we don't know about.

Then much earlier - maybe couple of years back - there was some noise around
nano silver particles, I haven't seen any conclusive discussion on that
either.

A quick search brought forth this: "Silver as a metal does not pose any
danger, but when you break it down to nano-sizes, the particles become small
enough to penetrate a cell wall. If nano-silver enters a human cell, it can
cause changes in the cell"
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140227115424.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140227115424.htm)

~~~
dogma1138
Most likely not, same goes for any artificial material it takes decades until
you are able to even begin to start understanding the effect on humans and
until your body starts adopting to a new environment.

We now see our bodies starting to utilize mechanisms to repair the damage
caused to DNA by the likes of smoking, and even that mechanism is only
apparent in a very small part of the human population.

Nano materials are even more scary because depending on the actual material in
question they can be made as fine as 100's or 1000's of molecules in size.
Nanoscale Iron Oxide particles that first seemed to be quite bio-compatible
now show signs of being potentially quite nasty
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3459910/](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3459910/)

We have very little understanding of the chemistry and hence biological impact
of materials when we encounter them in very small and unique forms that do not
appear in nature.

Quite a few discoveries in material science and chemistry in the past few
decades were a result of a field we though we mostly understood an element is
an element no matter what, but now we know that the size and formation of
elements on the molecular and atomic scales can have a huge impact on
attributes of an element or a compound, whilst this isn't like rediscovering
chemistry it does point at a very big and not yet understood part of it.

Nano particles are also quite nasty in the way that many of them can pass
through some filtration and containment solutions we currently have including
hazmat suits and long term storage containers so i think there is a need for a
call to stop and think about this entire industry very carefully.

~~~
anigbrowl
_We now see our bodies starting to utilize mechanisms to repair the damage
caused to DNA by the likes of smoking, and even that mechanism is only
apparent in a very small part of the human population._

As an ex-smoker I'm interested to know more about that, this is the first I've
heard of it. Do you have any links or distinctive technical terms I could
search on? I don't want to go on a fishing expedition.

~~~
dogma1138
The latest Nobel prize in Chemistry might be a good start, more specific
examples can be like specific (and apparently fairly recent) mutations in the
XRCC1 gene that greatly reduce the risk of bladder cancer (which smokers
normally have 3-5 times greater chance of contracting) in smokers.
[http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....](http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0073448)

And there are probably 100's of other studies of various examples, our bodies
constantly evolve to adapt to new environmental factors smoking is a fairly
recent one but is still something that you could evolve to live with, not that
we should count on that tho...

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murbard2
I really doubt it's going to be found in quantities large enough to make
harvesting it economical.

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tajen
"found in all of 64 children" "also found in vehicle exhaust"

Are there several definitions of nanotubes, one of them including a lot of
carbon chains?

~~~
putterson
I didn't read the article, and I'm no chemist, but I wouldn't be surprised if
combustion produces carbon nanotubes. Buckyballs were discovered to be present
in candle soot.

~~~
sitkack
Sounds like a great warning. Nanoparticles have the potential to be even more
carcinogenic than asbestos, they will irreversibly permeate the ecosystem.

~~~
cotillion
If nanotubes exist in car exhaust and buckyballs in candle soot then we've
already performed a huge experiment on loads of people. Life expectancy is
still increasing...

~~~
unclebucknasty
>life expectancy is still increasing...*

Yet cancer, Alzheimer's, autism, etc. are on the rise.

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hugh4
Cancer and Alzheimer's are on the rise _because_ life expectancy is
increasing.

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unclebucknasty
Nope. That only explains a portion of the increase.

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hugh4
Got a convincing and well-sourced statistical argument on that one?

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unclebucknasty
Yes. Do you for your declaration?

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learning_still
I really dislike when an article waits til the end to explain why I shouldn't
care. First half of the article is all about how we should worry and care
about this thing. Second half of the article is, "actually you should just
disregard everything we just said."

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JoeAltmaier
My wife (tech writer) calls this the 'mystery novel' form of essay. She says
Engineers are particularly guilty of writing that way. She was right, in my
case anyway. For a while after I married her I would go through all my writing
and move the last sentence in each paragraph to first. Because I did it all
the time.

~~~
hinkley
This sounds similar to 'burying the punchline' which we are also prone to do.

If you have a solution to the problem you are describing, please notify us in
the first paragraph so we don't think you're just complaining.

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arprocter
I would guess the particles are from diesel soot[0], but that doesn't make
sense that it's the 'first time they have been found', as diesel engines have
been popular in Europe for decades.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_exhaust#Effect_of_parti...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_exhaust#Effect_of_particles_on_health)

~~~
mhurron
> that doesn't make sense that it's the 'first time they have been found'

First time it's been looked for would make it the first time it's been found
if it's common.

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bitwize
Bracing now for the Facebook clickbait posts about a supposed link between
nanotubes and autism.

~~~
anigbrowl
Don't borrow trouble.

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cabbeer
I have a few tennis rackets made from carbon nanotubes, should I be worried?

~~~
ovi256
Just don't powder them, or, if you do, don't snort the powder.

Just use common sense, in other words.

