Weight of Evidence approach for the relative hazard ranking of nanomaterials

Abstract

In assessing hazard for human health posed by newly engineered nanomaterials (ENM), approaches such as Weight of Evidence (WOE) and expert judgment are required to develop conclusions about the hazard of ENM. This is because all factors affecting hazard are not currently well defined and are often subject to different interpretation. Here we report the application of a WOE procedure to assess the potential of ENM to cause harm for human health, by integrating and combining physicochemical properties of NM and toxicity data obtained within the EU-funded Particle Risk project. The procedure was applied to carbon black (CB), single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT), C60 fullerene and quantum dots (QD) ENM tested during the Particle Risk project. The results show that some of the investigated ENM present a relatively higher hazardousness level on the basis of the integration of their physicochemical properties and toxicological effects, and that their hazard may be ranked as follow: QD >> C60 > SWNT > CB. This case study shows the utility of WOE approach to obtain a hazard ranking of ENM.

Keywords::

• Hazard assessment
• physicochemical properties
• weight of evidence
• hazard ranking

Acknowledgments

This work was founded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Program (Particle Risk project; contract no. 012912). The authors acknowledge the contribution of Prof. K. Donaldson and I. McGuinnes of the University of Edinburgh (UK) for the data concerning, the effects of ENM on platelets; W.G. Kreyling and M. Semmler-Behnke of the National Research Center for Environment and Health, Institute for Inhalation Biology (Munich, Germany) for the results of ENM biodistribution after intratracheal instillation in rats; and H. Wallin of the National Research Centre for the Working Environment (Copenhagen, Denmark) for the identification of suitable indicators and rating values.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.