Carbon Nanotubes May Carry Mesothelioma Risk: Study

New research raises serious concerns about the potential health risks associated with manufactured carbon nanotubes, a revolutionary material that has remarkable strength, flexibility, and thermo/electric conductive properties, indicating that exposure may be similar to what is associated with asbestos, which is known to cause a rare and untreatable form of cancer known as mesothelioma.

In a report published in the science journal Current Biology on November 6, researchers from the U.K. warn that inhalation of long-fiber carbon nanotubes (CNTs) appear to have a similar mesothelioma risk as asbestos exposure.

The findings could create a major roadblock in the growth of the carbon nanotube industry, which is seeing the increased use of carbon nanotubes in everything from sports equipment to military applications to nanotechnology.

Researchers looked at the side effects of long-fiber carbon nanotubes and long asbestos fibers on the pleural cavity of mice, finding that when the mice had certain genetic variations or mutations, the risk of both carbon nanotubes and asbestos causing malignant mesothelioma was increased.

The study also found that the test subjects’ immune systems were better equipped to fight off short and tangled nanotubes and prevent those from causing tumors.

“Aberrant cell signaling was detected as early as 1 week post-instillation and sustained during the entire time of disease progression, including end-stage disease, in mice,” the researchers determined. “Importantly, this pattern of pro-oncogenic signaling was strikingly similar in mesothelioma patients.”

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos and breathing asbestos fibers.  It is a lethal disease that is often at a very advanced stage when a diagnosis is made, resulting in a very short life-expectancy.

Litigation against manufacturers and suppliers of asbestos products has been one of the largest mass-torts in U.S. history, with hundreds of thousands of mesotheslioma cases brought nationwide against more than 6,000 defendants, due to injuries caused by inhaling the toxic fibers.

Prior projections by the CDC suggested that the number of asbestos deaths from malignant mesothelioma would peak years ago. However, that does not appear to be the case. Instead, from 1999 to 2015, the annual mesothelioma death rate increased by 4.8%, from 2,479 deaths in 1999 to 2,579 deaths in 2015.

“Given that the increasing manufacture of long CNT fibers raises the potential for human exposure, our findings reinforce the need for caution when using these agents if long-term harm is to be avoided,” the researchers of this latest study warn.