4. Harmful for flora and fauna: Because of the small size of the NMs, they are
harmful to the biotic and abiotic components of the ecosystem. NPs are known to
cause cytotoxicity, genotoxicity, and ecotoxicity. NPs easily enter the cells and
interrupt the cell functioning such as transcription and translation process (Byrne
and Baugh 2008). The main cause of the toxicity is the extremely small size, high
surface area, and improved surface activity. NMs are also known to cause
biomagnification after entering the food chain leading to various complications
in the different organs of the human body such as lungs, liver, blood, etc.
(Fig. 2.4) (Byrne and Baugh 2008).
5. The problem in fabrication, isolation, and utilization of nanosubstances:
Maintaining the stability, and uniformity of the NPs is very difficult. Therefore,
to maintain stability, NMs have to be coated with a stable substance. Isolation of
nanosubstances is very complicated as particles tend to merge and grow in size
because of agglomeration.
Fig. 2.4 Sources, exposure routes, and effects of nanoparticles in human body
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V. Dogra et al.