Nanomaterials, where do we stand?

Régine Frick

11 March 2013

At the last session of “Les Matinales de la cosmétique”, the monthly event organized in Paris by SRC Consulting, Professor Philippe Piccerelle from the University of Aix-Marseille, drew a contrasted picture of the risks and opportunities associated to nanomaterials.

Materials with a high potential

A possible ban on nanoparticles would be tantamount to accepting to deprive ourselves of structures which, because of their small size, change the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of materials and therefore offer broad fields of application. In fact, the possible applications offered by nanomaterials exceed by far the sole domain of cosmetics [1].

“Nano-objects can be found in many business sectors such as the food industry with cyclodextrins which are flavour enhancers, the health industry where nano vectors are widely used to carry drugs, in cosmetics, and many other areas. Nanoparticles are ubiquitous in our everyday lives,” says Dr. Philippe Piccerelle. The properties obtained are often remarkable: improved solubility, different colour, targeted and prolonged action, magnetic properties, different biological interactions... The range of possibilities seems infinite.

The study conducted in May 2012 by the firm McDermott Will & Emery even defines nanotechnology as the 5th Industrial Revolution. In this area, the United States is the country which files the most patents (54%), far ahead South Korea (8%), Japan and Germany (7%). France contributes to 4% of patent applications. The general increase in the number of applications is vertiginous since it is close to 150% between 2006 and 2011. [2]

Safety in question

But for manufacturers, particularly those in cosmetics, there is also the question of the acceptability of these nano-particles for consumers. Won’t they suffer the same fate as other substances, now more or less ostracised.

Because undeniably, nanoparticles have not always had good press, especially with some environmentalists.

However, strictly regulatory speaking, nothing is banned. The new European regulation for the cosmetic industry requires that nanoscale substances are subject to opinion 6 months before the placing on the market of products. No later than January 11, 2014, the Commission will provide a catalogue of nano-products used in cosmetics, and the term [nano] will have to follow the name of the ingredient concerned on the label of products containing some.
According to Prof. Piccerelle, “questions that arise, about the use of nanoparticles are those related to their physical state (are they solid or liquid?), to their biopersistence, their possible passage through the tissue barrier and to their genotoxicity.”

In March 2011, the Afssaps adopted a report on the state of knowledge concerning the use of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles in cosmetics, especially with regards to their skin penetration, genotoxicity and carcinogenicity. “No general conclusion could be given, everything depending of the routes of exposure –whether they are cutaneous or pulmonary routes, of the skin condition –whether it is injured or not,” explains Dr. Picerrelle. “Studies conducted by independent experts are to be done on this subject and they also need to be backed-up by information campaigns” he adds.

The conduct of such studies is essential if we want one day to get the benefits of these particles.

The European Consumers’ Organisation (BEUC), which groups several consumer associations from 31 European countries, is already asking for a stricter regulation. The organization wishes that are established as nanomaterials, those with at least 0.15% of nanometric particles, those unintentionally produced as well as soluble nanoparticles and nanostructures, and those with sizes under 1 nm. The BEUC also wishes for a criterion of specific surface to be taken into account.

Footnotes

[1] For the European Regulation on cosmetics, a nanomaterial is “an insoluble or biopersistant and intentionally manufactured material with one or more external dimensions, or an internal structure, on the scale from 1 to 100 nm” (Regulation (EC) No 1223/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on cosmetic products, article 2k). However, in a more general text, the European Commission has recommended the following definition: “a natural, incidental or manufactured material containing particles, in an unbound state or as an aggregate or as an agglomerate and where, for 50% or more of the particles in the number size distribution, one or more external dimensions is in the size range 1 nm - 100 nm.” (Commission Recommendation of 18 October 2011 on the definition of nanomaterial)

[2] McDermott Will & Emery, “Nanotechnology - Who will be the leaders in the fifth technology revolution?” May 30, 2012