Tag Archives: Shashikanth Gajaraj

Not enough silver nanoparticles in water supply to be harmful?

While the news of a low concentration of silver nanoparticles in the water supply seems good in the short term, one can’t help wondering what will happen as more of them end up in the our water. As for the news itself, here’s the announcement concerning a review of some 300 papers, from an Oct. 13, 2016 news item on Nanowerk,

Silver nanoparticles have a wide array of uses, one of which is to treat drinking water for harmful bacteria and viruses. But do silver nanoparticles also kill off potentially beneficial bacteria or cause other harmful effects to water-based ecosystems? A new paper from a team of University of Missouri College of Engineering researchers says that’s not the case.

An Oct. 12, 2016 University of Missouri news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, expands on the theme (Note: Links have been removed),

In their paper, “Governing factors affecting the impacts of silver nanoparticles on wastewater treatment,” recently published in Science of the Total Environment, Civil and Environmental Engineering Department doctoral students Chiqian Zhang and Shashikanth Gajaraj and Department Chair and Professor Zhiqiang Hu worked with Ping Li of the South China University of Technology to analyze the results of approximately 300 published works on the subject of silver nanoparticles and wastewater. What they found was while silver nanoparticles can have moderately or even significantly adverse effects in large concentrations, the amount of silver nanoparticles found in our wastewater at present isn’t harmful to humans or the ecosystem as a whole.

“If the concentration remains low, it’s not a serious problem,” Zhang said.

Silver nanoparticles are used in wastewater treatment and found increasingly in everyday products in order to combat bacteria. In terms of wastewater treatment, silver nanoparticles frequently react with sulfides in biosolids, vastly limiting their toxicity.

Zhang said many of the studies looked at high concentrations and added that if, over time, the concentration rose to much higher levels of several milligrams per liter or higher), toxicity could become a problem. But he explained that it would take decades or even longer potentially to get to that point.

“People evaluate the toxicity in a small-scale system,” he said. “But with water collection systems, much of the silver nanoparticles become silver sulfide and not be harmful.”

Here’s a link to and a citation for the study,

Governing factors affecting the impacts of silver nanoparticles on wastewater treatment by Chiqian Zhang, Zhiqiang Hu, Ping Li, Shashikanth Gajaraj. Science of The Total Environment http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.07.145 Available online 16 August 2016

This study is behind a paywall.

For the curious, I have a Feb. 28, 2013 posting where I contrasted two silver nanoparticle studies one of which found little risk and the other which raised serious concerns. Scroll down about about 60% of the way for the ‘cautionary’ study.

Personally, I’m inclined to agree silver nanoparticles are not an immediate concern but since no one knows what the tipping point might be, now would be a good time to get serious about research, policies, and regulation.