Modeled Environmental Concentrations of Engineered Nanomaterials (TiO₂, ZnO, Ag, CNT, Fullerenes) for Different Regions

TLDR

Engineered nanomaterials are widely used and released into environmental compartments. The study calculated predicted environmental concentrations of ENMs using a probabilistic material‑flow analysis from a life‑cycle perspective. The authors modeled nano‑TiO₂, nano‑ZnO, nano‑Ag, carbon nanotubes, and fullerenes for the U.S., Europe, and Switzerland, deriving probabilistic concentration distributions and comparing them to ecotoxicological data. Simulated concentrations ranged from 0.003 ng L⁻¹ (fullerenes) to 21 ng L⁻¹ (nano‑TiO₂) in surface waters and 4 ng L⁻¹ to 4 µg L⁻¹ in sewage effluents, with annual sludge‑treated soil increases up to 89 µg kg⁻¹ for nano‑TiO₂, indicating current risks to aquatic organisms from nano‑Ag, nano‑TiO₂, and nano‑ZnO in effluents and from nano‑Ag in surface waters, while other compartments show no expected risks.

Abstract

Engineered nanomaterials (ENM) are already used in many products and consequently released into environmental compartments. In this study, we calculated predicted environmental concentrations (PEC) based on a probabilistic material flow analysis from a life-cycle perspective of ENM-containing products. We modeled nano-TiO2, nano-ZnO, nano-Ag, carbon nanotubes (CNT), and fullerenes for the U.S., Europe and Switzerland. The environmental concentrations were calculated as probabilistic density functions and were compared to data from ecotoxicological studies. The simulated modes (most frequent values) range from 0.003 ng L−1 (fullerenes) to 21 ng L−1 (nano-TiO2) for surface waters and from 4 ng L−1 (fullerenes) to 4 μg L−1 (nano-TiO2) for sewage treatment effluents. For Europe and the U.S., the annual increase of ENMs on sludge-treated soil ranges from 1 ng kg−1 for fullerenes to 89 μg kg−1 for nano-TiO2. The results of this study indicate that risks to aquatic organisms may currently emanate from nano-Ag, nano-TiO2, and nano-ZnO in sewage treatment effluents for all considered regions and for nano-Ag in surface waters. For the other environmental compartments for which ecotoxicological data were available, no risks to organisms are presently expected.