Nano Technology

These days, you hear lots about nano technology, but what does that mean? And how does nano technology affect our health and our environment?

Nano technology uses nano scale materials.

Nano scale materials are less than about 100 nanometers wide. A nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter. That’s about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Things this small act in some really special and different ways. Some of them are turning out to have all kinds of new uses in electronics, medicine, and other fields.

There is no single type of nano scale material.

NIEHS has two main interests in nanotechnology:

• using nano scale materials to improve public health, and
• learning if there are risks from using nano scale materials.

Very little is known about nano scale materials and how they affect human health and the environment.

NIEHS is supporting research on nanomaterials to find out the effects on human health.