Comments on: Carbon nanotubes could behave like asbestos

By: What You Don’t Know Can Kill You « Pragma Synesi – interesting bits

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 16:38:51 +0000

[...] a promising material that could be used in everything from bicycles to electrical circuits, might interact with the body the same way asbestos does. In another study, scientists at the University of Utah found that nanoscopic particles of silver [...]

By: Song

Song — Wed, 21 May 2008 16:31:35 +0000

Prudent safety measures and more research are needed, I agree. Of course.
I found your writing very balanced on this topic, Ed!
What I’d really like to know is how well the animal model identifies potential carcinogens. Like with any diagnostic test it should be possible to calculate the sensitivity and specificity of the method. I did a small search on PubMed – with about 2000 articles to go through, I expect it would take a few weeks to do a decent meta-analysis. Not something I’m really up for at the moment, but I’d be thrilled if somebody else did!

By: Lorre

Lorre — Wed, 21 May 2008 00:52:03 +0000

I concur with Ed’s call for more research in this area and note that cancer is not the only life-threatening danger to lungs.
Three years ago or more Science News published an article on the potential unintended effects of the day’s emerging discoveries. That article included carbon nanotubes, noting that any small hard substance working its way into the lung wall is detrimental, and that nanotubes were even harder and smaller than asbestos fibers. I’m not a scientist, but it seems common sense to me that there is a genuine risk here and that the responsible and prudent course includes protective or preventative measures and further research.

By: Ed Yong

Ed Yong — Tue, 20 May 2008 20:20:45 +0000

Good point. And I have some experience in dealing with overblown health scares so please note that I’ve made efforts to spell out what the study doesn’t show right at the start and be careful with my language. If anyone thinks I’ve failed to do that, let me know.
I thought the paper was interesting but not definitive and I don’t think that you could argue against a call for more research in this area.

By: Song

Song — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:48:45 +0000

As a mesothelioma researcher, I must say this is not very convincing.
We still have no clue about how asbestos fibres actually cause cancer. Inflammation is one mechanism that has been discussed, but there is no real evidence – only correlative data.
The key questions are: how many substances would cause inflammation when injected into the peritoneal cavities of mice, and how many of those that do would cause cancer?
Most likely: the vast majority, and a tiny minority, respectively.