Toxicity and regulatory perspectives of carbon nanotubes

In 2010, the global capacity for production of carbon nanotubes was conservatively estimated at 350 tonnes/year. With a substantial increase in manufacture, handling, use and disposal forecast, increasing human and environmental exposure is inevitable, and, as a result, carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in their many forms are beginning to increasingly come under toxicological scutiny. The enormous number of permutations and combinations of CNTs being handled in the materials' discovery, production and biomedical or industrial application phases has led to a daunting bottleneck in relation to ensuring human and environmental safety. After a brief discussion of public perceptions and risk, this chapter summarizes many of the current CNT toxicity studies and provides a breakdown of the various CNT parameters thought to influence their toxicological properties. Subsequent sections give perspectives on potential future biological applications of CNTs, and on the shifting trends in regularity frameworks and knowledge gaps which need to be addressed in order to ensure the safe and sustainable utility of CNTs in a range of important applications.