(408d) Explosion Risks From Nanomaterials

Emerging nanomanufactured products are being incorporated in a variety of consumer products ranging closer body contact products (i.e. cosmetics, sunscreens, toothpastes, pharmaceuticals, clothings) to more remote body-contact products (electronics, plastics, tires, automotive and aeronautical), hence posing potential health and environmental risks.

The new field of nanosafety has emerged and need to be explored now rather than after problems become so ubiquitous and difficult to treat that their trend become irreversible.

Such endeavor necessitates a transdisciplinary approach. In this paper, potential H&S risks will be reviewed and the work performed at INERIS and LSGC illustrated. Under development risk ranking methodologies implementing environmental vulnerability concepts and new characterization methods will be described. Moreover, a commonly forgotten and misunderstood risk, that of explosion and detonation of nanopowders, due to their high specific active surface areas, will be emphasized and illustrated with the present development of an appropriate risk analysis.

For this particular risk, review of characterization methods and their limitations with regard to nanopowders will be presented and illustrated for a few organic and metallic nanopowders.

Acknowledgement

We thank the EC and the French Ministry of Ecology and Energy for Sustained Development, for the funding of NANOSAFE2 (project N° 515843-2) and NANORIS projects.