Graphene’s health effects summarised in
new guide
Almost all carbon nanomaterials are based on variations of graphene, a one atom thick
honeycomb-like arrangement of carbon atoms. Graphene can be stacked, wrapped or rolled,
to form graphite, football-like ‘buckyballs’ or carbon nanotubes (CNTs), respectively.
These materials have unique properties which may make them useful in industrial processes
and consumer technologies, such as flexible display screens, carbon-based microchips and
medical applications. Additionally, graphene is also being investigated for environmental
applications, such as cleaning up hazardous materials and pollutants in contaminated waters.
These properties can be further modified by attaching different chemical groups to the
graphene surface.
While the potential use and safety of CNTs has been investigated for some time, much less is
known about graphene, partly because of early difficulties in increasing its production and
because it is in an early stage of development. Now, with increasing research, the adoption of
different types of graphene materials in different industries will increase the likelihood of
human exposure to this material.
In 2013, researchers published an overview on possible safety concerns for graphene. The
paper summarises the physical and chemical characteristics of graphene and CNTs and the
evidence of how they may affect health. Existing knowledge and experience from safety
studies using CNTs was used to speculate on the safety of graphene.
The possible effects of graphene on human health were examined at the cellular, tissue and
whole body levels in comparison to CNTs. The extent and mechanism by which cells interact
and uptake graphene is considered critically important, since once inside a living cell the
material could interact with or disrupt cellular processes and cause damage. Exposing the
body to carbon nanomaterials could result in either their accumulation in the tissues or
elimination through excretion. Accumulated nanomaterials could pose a risk to organ
function, and therefore to health.
At the level of the whole body, the authors indicate that there are two main safety factors to
consider regarding exposure to CNTs and graphene. The first is their ability to generate a
response by the body’s immune system; the second is their ability to cause inflammation and
cancer.
The authors used the existing evidence to develop a set of three generalised guidelines,
which if implemented, could reduce the overall health risk to a minimum for workers involved
in developing graphene, and graphene-based technologies.
These can be summarised as follows:
1) Use individual graphene sheets that are small enough for immune cells to engulf and
remove from the site where they were found in the body.
2) Use stable, individual graphene sheets which are easily dispersed in water to
minimise their clumping and aggregation in the body.
3) Use graphene, or chemically modified graphene material, that can be easily cleared
from or biodegraded in the body, to prevent damage from chronic accumulation into tissues.
This study provides useful information to help guide the work of graphene research groups
and could help raise awareness of graphene’s potential health and safety effects.
The potential promise of graphene is such that in 2013 the European Commission announced1
that a graphene initiative was a winner in the multi-billion euro ‘Future and Emerging
Technologies’ competition. Furthermore, over 100 research groups will receive funding for up
to seven years for graphene-related projects as part of the Horizon 2020 programme.
https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/research/newsalert/pdf/graphenes_health_effects_summarised_in_new_guide_48si8_en.pdf