Designing safer nanomaterials and n

Designing safer nanomaterials and nanostructures has gained increasing attention in the field of nanoscience and technology in recent years. Based on the body of experimental evidence contributed by environmental health and safety studies, materials scientists now have a better grasp on the relation￾ships between the nanomaterials’ physicochemical characteristics and their hazard/safety profiles. Therefore, it is expected that an integration of design synthesis and safety assessment will foster nanomaterials safer-by-design by considering both applications and implications. From the environmental safety perspective, the most recent advances that demonstrate effective nano￾materials safer-by-design are highlighted.Safety of Nanomaterials1. A Brief History of Safer-by-DesignAlthough the idea of “Safer-by-Design” is relatively new in the field of nanoscience and technology, first appeared in the lit￾erature around 2008, similar concepts have been previously implemented to encourage conscious design to avoid the poten￾tial adverse effect of chemicals and pharmaceuticals.[1] In the 1990s, the United States, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Japan sequentially launched several major research initiatives in green chemistry, with a coherent emphasis on promoting research and development on green and sustainable chemistry.[2] Such initiatives originated from the need to address the increasing body of literature documenting the adverse health effect and detrimental environmental impact resulted from chemical exposure. Concurrently, in pharmaceutical sciences, a similar term called “Quality-by-Design” was coined to describe the deliberative effort to reduce or eliminate drug toxicity and was later adopted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate synthetic drugs and natural medicine.[3] The driving force to implement the rigorously controlled process to ensure drug safety stemmed from the need to minimize or circum￾vent adverse safety liabilities and subsequent financial penal￾ties of new drugs. In the report “Pharmaceutical Quality for the 21st Century: A Risk-Based Approach,” it is clearly stated that the quality should be built into a product with the knowledge of