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Another false "Nano"-Alarm
Published: Saturday 31 July 2010
On the 10th July 2010, the European Union rapid alert system for all dangerous consumer products, RAPEX, featured notification from Denmark, that a product called ‘NanoCover’ (i.e. described as a ‘Pump-spray detergent - NanoCover Floor Seal, Non-absorbent’) was to be removed from the market, with the justification that ‘[t]he product poses a chemical risk because it contains trioxytridecafloursilane which should be classified as toxic by inhalation’ (see RAPEX database, search term ‘NanoCover’).
Clarification:
Similar to the case of ‘MagicNano’, a sealing spray for glass and ceramics, which had been recalled from the market in 2006 (see RAPEX notification, search term ‘MagicNano’), the ‘danger’ associated with the use of the product is based to the presence of chemicals in the product, and is not connected to any nanospecific property of the product: the offending chemical ‘trioxydecafloursilane’, found in NanoCover, is a colourless liquid, which can create a thin hydrophobic (i.e. water- and dirt-repellent) layer on the surface.
When MagicNano was recalled in 2006, the cause of the breathing problems, observed in number of users of the product, was initially unknown; in 2009, however, the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR), which had lead an in-depth investigation into the toxic effects of impregnation aerosols, reported that ‘the spray [MagicNano] most probably contained ‘floursilanes’’, which adhered to the lung-walls, after a rapid evaporation of the solvent, caused by the use of an inappropriate spray head on the can.
NOTE: The RAPEX consumer alert system allows those that post alerts to chose from a list of ‘keywords’, describing the associated ‘Danger’ of a product; the keyword list is a mix of both harmful effects (such as ‘choking’, ‘damage to hearing’, ‘injuries’, ‘strangulation’), physical processes (such as ‘inhalation’), as well as substance (such as ‘chemical’), which can be used in any combination to describe the reason for product removal. To the NIA’s knowledge, an inclusion of ‘nano’ in this list is not foreseen.
Follow these links to find out more about RAPEX, or to view the RAPEX listings of both NanoCover and MagicNano on RAPEX.