Environmental, health and safety issues articles from across Nature Portfolio

Clean water and sanitation are major global challenges. Here, Prof. Zhang’s group developed a two-dimensional cobalt-functionalized vermiculite membrane, which overcame the persistent membrane permeability-selectivity trade-off in water purification.

Enveloped viruses encased within a lipid bilayer membrane are highly contagious and cause diseases like influenza and COVID-19, so strategies for their prevention and inactivation are needed. Here, the authors develop a diatomic iron nanozyme with lipoxidase-like activity for the inactivation of enveloped viruses, where the diatomic iron sites destroy the viral envelope via lipid peroxidation.

Here the authors show that the trophi or jaws of the chitinous masticatory apparatus of marine and freshwater zooplankton rotifers can grind microplastics, independent of polymer composition, and generate particulate nanoplastics, which may accelerate the nanoplastic flux in global surface waters.

Biodegradable polylactic acid (PLA) microplastics are shown to undergo enzymatic hydrolysis by lipases found in the human gut to generate PLA oligomers, which self-aggregate to form nanoplastic particles. The oligomers and their nanoparticles bioaccumulated in multiple organs of a mouse model and caused acute intestinal inflammation.

Waste containing nanomaterials — or nanowaste — is an emerging safety concern worldwide, warranting specific environmentally sound waste management and regulation.

Standardization and interoperability of data for both the functional and environmental performance properties of nanomaterials is essential to accelerate sustainable design.

Sharing protocols with the end-users may allow their flexible implementation to produce nanotechnology solutions for global health challenges that better cater for local needs.

The experiences gained from the past 15 years of nanomaterial risk analysis may be useful for the risk analysis efforts of other emerging technologies.

J. Scott Angle is the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) in the US. Anne Mullen asks him about opportunities for nanotechnology in agriculture and food security. The views expressed below do not necessarily represent the official views of NIFA or the US Department of Agriculture.