Les nanomatériaux

Commissariat général au développement durableSep 24, 2019

Les propriétés des nanomatériaux sont utilisées pour de multiples applications, telles que la pharmacie, l’aéronautique et les nouvelles technologies, où ils permettent d’améliorer l’efficacité de traitements médicaux ou d’accroître la compétitivité de l’industrie française. Cependant, les risques induits par ces substances sur l’homme et sur l’environnement restent méconnus, compte tenu de leur développement rapide et récent et du manque de recul pour évaluer leurs effets.

The properties of nanomaterials are used for multiple applications, such as pharmaceuticals, aerospace and new technologies, where they enable improving the effectiveness of medical treatments or increasing the competitiveness of French industry. However, the risks posed by these substances to humans and the environment remain poorly understood, given their rapid and recent development and the lack of hindsight to assess their effects.

2 chapters

Ubiquitous substances with highly varied uses
Definition
• Nanomaterials are substances composed of particles with at least one dimension on the order of a nanometer (nm), that is, one billionth of a meter, and at most 100 nm. • The European Commission, in its recommendation of 18 October 2011, recommends the following definition: "natural material, formed accidentally or manufactured, containing free particles, in the form of an aggregate or agglomerate, of which at least 50% of the particles, in the distribution by numerical size, have one or more external dimensions between 1 nm and 100 nm. In specific cases, where justified for reasons of environmental protection, public health, safety or competitiveness, the 50% threshold set for the distribution by numerical size may be replaced by a threshold between 1% and 50%".
Application fields
The use of these substances is booming. Indeed, their properties are used in strategic and innovative fields: industry, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food and beverage, construction, energy, information and communication technologies, automotive, aerospace. Applications linked to their size and structure are numerous:
Types and uses
• nanoparticles used in food additives, paints, cosmetics, inks, tires; • carbon black used as black pigment in printing inks, also to strengthen rubber products such as tires and cables; • nanocapsules used in medicines, textiles, wastewater treatment; • fullerenes used in mascaras, beauty creams, polymers, hydrogen storage; • nanowires used for transmission of electrical, optical and chemical signals; • carbon nanotubes used to reinforce composite materials, ceramics and textiles, drug delivery vectors; • nanolayers used in surface coatings to provide anti-adhesive, self-cleaning, abrasion-resistant properties; • nanocomposites incorporated into materials to provide specific mechanical, optical, magnetic, thermal properties.
Significant quantities manufactured and imported, used by agriculture, chemicals and food industries
Population exposure
• The rapid development of nanomaterials and their use in many everyday consumer products make them now ubiquitous. • Population exposure to these substances is thus daily, whether through food, medication use, cosmetics or textiles. The exposure routes identified for humans are respiratory, dermal and digestive pathways.
Quantities produced and imported
• In 2016, 1,400 French entities (manufacturers, importers, distributors, users) declared in the "R-Nano" register (declaration system for substances in nanoparticulate form) the manufacture of 304,300 tonnes and the import of 120,000 tonnes of nanomaterials, corresponding to 275 categories of substances. Without taking into account quantities exported, as they are not declared in the R-Nano register, the substances produced and imported represent 6 kg per inhabitant per year. The sum of quantities manufactured and imported decreases by 14% between 2012 and 2016. French production increases by 24% over the 2012-2015 period, then decreases by 13% between 2015 and 2016, returning to 2014 levels. Imports of nanomaterials undergo a sharp decline (-43%) over the 2012-2016 period.
Producing sectors
• In 2016, in France, the five leading activity sectors producing the majority of nanomaterial quantities are: • the sector for manufacturing basic chemicals, nitrogen products and fertilizers, basic plastics and synthetic rubber; • the chemical industry; • the manufacture of dyes and pigments; • the manufacture of other basic inorganic chemicals; • dairy operations, cheese production.
Uses and data confidentiality
• Furthermore, nanomaterials are predominantly used in agriculture (pesticides). In 2016 this use accounts for 58% of declarations relating to chemical product categories into which nanomaterials are incorporated. Cosmetics and personal care products rank second (10.4% of declarations), ahead of coatings and paints, solvents, thinners (10.3% of declarations). • > The R-Nano database and confidentiality Detailed data on nanomaterials (chemical name, uses, quantities) may be subject to trade and industrial secrecy, which does not allow for an exhaustive breakdown of tonnages produced and imported by uses and product categories. This breakdown is distributed according to the number of declarants. The same applies to quantities produced of certain types of nanomaterials (example of titanium dioxide), whose data are presented by tonnage bands (< 100 g; 100 g to 1 kg; 1 to 10 kg; 10 to 100 kg; 100 kg to 1 t; 1 to 10 t; 10 to 100 t; 100 to 1000 t; > 1000 t). The confidentiality of this data is provided for in article R 523-18 of the environmental code.

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