There is an undeniable boost in the commercial use of nanomaterials (NMs), with up to 8,241 nanotechnology-based products today and a market growing at CAGR 16% up to 2022. However, there is a downside due to the potential to cause adverse effects of particles below 100 nm on the environment and human health. Because of their size and surface-to-volume ratio, NMs are more toxic than the same material conventionally sized, they increase the risk of explosion in industrial settings, pass easily through biological membranes, can be inhaled more deeply in the lungs, and have a higher potential for translocation from the lung to other tissues, causing hepatotoxicity, cardiotoxicity or genotoxicity.
It should be noted that studies conducted over the last decade reported direct correlation with adverse effects, especially cardiopulmonary diseases (e.g. asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, arrhythmia, heart attack). In view of the effects of particles in the nanometer range on human health, and considering that risk is a function of the level of exposure to a substance and how hazardous it is, the assessment of exposure to airborne nanomaterials in both indoor and outdoor environments has therefore raised increased attention. Moreover, as a result of increasing production and use of NMs, there is the chance of exposure for workers, consumers and the environment . Furthermore, according to a recent projection, 6 million workers will be potentially exposed to nanoscale particles in 2020 .
The NanoWatcher monitoring unit is patent pending particle counter specifically designed to measure nanoparticles for human health exposure risk assessment. It comprises a hardware and a software part. The hardware include a condensational growth system to enlarge particles that are too small to scatter enough light to be detected by conventional optics. It can detect and count particles from 5 to 2,500 nm at 1 second resolution in the concentration range from 0.01 to 106 particles/cm3. And the software counts with a web based platform or the NanoWatcher APP developed in an Android APP, both designed for the configuration and remote management of the devices and the detailed analysis of their dataset.
