While there is currently no evidence that engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) pose a significant threat to the environment, many gaps in our knowledge remain with regard to ENM ecotoxicity. The lack of evidence should by no means be interpreted to imply that environmental damage cannot occur. Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara, have developed a dynamic multimedia fate and transport model (nanoFate; not to be confused with the European NanoFATE project) to predict the time-dependent accumulation of metallic engineered nanomaterials across environmental media.

Compared to previous ENM fate models, nanoFate considers a wider range of ENM processes, including emissions to air, water (freshwater and marine), and soils (urban, agricultural, undeveloped) from their manufacturing, use, and disposal; advection in and out of main environmental compartments; rate-limited transport across compartments; resuspension to air and attachment to aerosols; transformation into other ENMs or compounds; in natural waters aggregation, sedimentation, dissolution, filtration, and sorption to suspended particles and the subsequent deposition to sediment.

Since some ENMs also dissolve over time, nanoFate accounts for long-term accumulation of both nanoparticles and dissolved metal ions. nanoFate is also designed to allow for the inclusion of other key transformations processes (e.g., oxidation, sulfidation, adsorption of natural organic matter, loss of the original coating) that alter their chemical properties and environmental behaviour, though these are not yet sufficiently understood to incorporate into a mathematical model

• Read the complete press release (safenano.org, 31.05.2017) online via http://www.safenano.org/news/news-articles/the-nanofate-model-assesses-the-risk-of-engineered-nanomaterials-in-the-environment/ 

Original Publication:

Garner K.L., Suh S., Keller A.A. (2017). Assessing the Risk of Engineered Nanomaterials in the Environment: Development and Application of the nanoFate Model. Environ Sci Technol, 51(10): 5541-5551. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b05279