Environmental toxicity of nanoparticules

In recent years, nanoparticles that have size of 1-100 nm is widely used for textile, pharmacy, cosmetic and treatment of industrial wastewater. Producing and using of nanoparticles widely, causes important accumulation in nature and toxicity on ecosystem. Knowledge of potential toxicity of nanoparticles is limited. In this study, six different nanoparticles nano-zinc oxide, nano-silicon dioxide, nano-cerium oxide, nano-aluminum oxide, nano-hafnium oxide, and nano-tantalum oxide which used commonly, were studied to investigate toxic impacts on organisms. We studied nine different acute toxicity test (bacteria – Escherichia coli (gram negative bacteria) ; bacteria – Bacillus cereus (gram positive bacteria) ; bacteria – Vibrio fischeri (bioluminescences bacteria) ; methane Archae Bacteria ; yeast – Candida albicans ; mold – Aspergillus niger ; algae – Chlorella sp. ; Crustacea – Daphnia magna ; lepistes - Poecillia reticula) for the effect of nanoparticles to different trophic levels. In general, the most toxic nanoparticle is nano-zinc oxide and the least toxic nanoparticle is nano-hafnium oxide. Among the used organisms in acute toxicity test; the most sensitive organism is algae- Chlorella sp ; the most resistant organism is fish- Poecillia reticula.