Nanotechnology activities: environmental protection regulatory issues data

Luciana Almeida; Israel Felzenszwalb; Mônica Marques; Carla Cruz

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05303

Nanotechnology activities: environmental protection regulatory issues data

Heliyon. 2020 Oct 19;6(10):e05303. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05303. eCollection 2020 Oct.

Authors

Luciana Almeida¹, Israel Felzenszwalb², Mônica Marques³, Carla Cruz⁴

Affiliations

¹ Science Doctoral Program at the Departament of Post-Graduate in Environment, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
² Departament of Biophysics and Biometrics at the Institute of Biology Roberto Alcantara Gomes, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
³ Departament of Organic Chemistry at the Institute of Chemistry, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
⁴ Computacional Sciences Doctoral Program at the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Abstract

Nanotechnology is a fascinating technology that is revolutionizing science and bringing countless benefits to the population. The economic side linked to nanotechnology has grown in recent years, as have the lines of research. However, nanoparticles can be toxic when released into the environment. In this work, a scientometric study was carried out in order to identify and describe scientific research on environmental protection involving nanotechnology with respect to regulatory studies. The research period was from 2003 to 2020, the database selected was Scopus and the software used for the study was Microsoft Excel and VOSviewer. According to specified keywords, the result presented by Scopus was a total of 106 publications. The clustering figures shown by VOSviewer showed that nanotoxicity studies were mostly aimed at protecting human health, to the detriment of environmental protection. Another interesting fact is that toxicity of nanomaterials has been studied from the perspective of risk assessment, including by the regulatory sector.

Keywords: Environmental protection; Environmental science; Nanotechnology; Regulation; Scienciometry; Sustainability.