The Gary Null Blog

Nutraingredients.com, 22-Jun-2011

The limited nature of many toxicity studies into engineered nanoparticles used in the food and dietary supplements industry makes it very difficult to draw firm conclusions about their safety, according to one expert in the field.

Speaking at the IFT show last week, Dr Bernadene Magnuson, senior scientific and regulatory consultant at Cantox Health Sciences International, said an analysis of 30 studies toxicity studies into engineered nanoparticles highlighted gaps in the research and methodological problems.

For example, most in vivo tests were high, single-dose, acute studies, which were of “limited relevance to food exposure”, which should examine the impact of repeated low doses over a long period of time, she argued.

“There are a few short-term repeated dose studies, but no long-term, chronic studies. In general, the reliability of the data from nanomaterial toxicology studies is not great.

"We need to improve characterization and the quality of the studies," added Magnuson, a toxicologist best known for her work on assessing the safety of aspartame.

Testing methodologies must be validated