Health effects of nanomaterials: A critical appraisal approach and research to practice

✍ Scribed by Reynold Sequeira; Ash Genaidy; Gary Weckman; Richard Shell; Waldemar Karwowski; Adriana Acosta-Leon

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 790 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1090-8471
• DOI: 10.1002/hfm.20113

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Background Researchers across the globe are studying health effects of various nanomaterials and nanostructures. Most of these studies are qualitative in nature and lack parallel research to compare and validate the reliability of the findings.

Objective This research targets a critical appraisal of such clinical studies by first developing a suitable tool and then evaluating the quality of reporting of these trials.

Methods The published articles were collected from a search of electronic databases and bibliographies of identified articles. A critical appraisal (ExpAI) suitable for assessment of such experimental studies was developed and the articles were appraised using this instrument. The main findings of the study were evaluated for their use in the development of new techniques for practice using a linguistic scale.

Results Twenty‐eight articles were found to satisfy the inclusion criteria adopted in this research. The methodological qualities of the published studies ranged from marginal to average.

Conclusions Though the studies evaluated in this research have proven that nanoparticles do have adverse health effects, nanoparticles should not be discounted without exploring the possibility of using them to benefit companies and the general population. Reengineering should be considered while creating these new systems to overcome the health effects found by various studies. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.