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Nano - A Destigmatization
"Nano" has become a metaphor for something particularly small, and "nano" is often considered harmful to the body. The fact that there are many particles that are significantly smaller than "nano" doesn't seem to bother anyone. The word "nano" is enough to arouse suspicion.
Consumers suspect that nanoparticles penetrate the skin, are absorbed into the bloodstream, spread throughout the body, and cause disease. Possible reasons for this include a lack of knowledge about or mistrust of applicable regulations, as well as unclear understanding of the behavior of nanoparticles in skin care products. Therefore, the term "nano" should be evaluated using sunscreen, where "nano" plays a major role. This should prevent an incorrect assessment of risks and hazards.
To be clear right from the start: Nanoparticles cannot penetrate the skin . They are far too large for that. Furthermore, the use of nanoparticles on the skin is strictly regulated for reasons of very high consumer protection and is safe for adults, children, and especially pregnant women (1).
(1) Surber C et al., Nano is big! Facts and myths about UV filters, Dermatologist 2022
Nano (order of magnitude of one billionth of a meter) was created in connection with the physical/inorganic or mineral filters by reducing the particle size.
Effect: They reflect or scatter UV rays.
However, their cosmetic acceptance remained limited because they remain on the skin as a white paste. By reducing the size of these relatively large particles (from the mid-1990s onward) to the nanoscale below 100 nanometers (1 nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter or one billionth of a meter), the optical property of these filters to reflect visible light was reduced, which improved their cosmetic acceptance, as the now significantly smaller particles also produced significantly less whitening and even increased the protective effect against UVB and UVA rays.
A small soluble chemical sunscreen filter (much smaller than nano) thus acquires an additional physical/inorganic filtering function when enlarged into the nano range, since in this enlarged form it not only absorbs the UV rays, but also reflects or scatters them.
Converting a small, soluble chemical filter into a nanoparticle size improves the effectiveness of the UV protection filter and thus also the skin's protection from the sun. At the same time, this particle enlargement reduces the risk of the filter penetrating the skin, which, although also very unlikely with the previously used small chemical filters, was nevertheless higher due to the much smaller molecular or particle size.
In summary, the skin's structure and barrier make it ideally suited to preventing the relatively large, insoluble nanoparticles from penetrating and penetrating the skin. However, the nanoparticles (unlike small, soluble molecules) are too large for this, and the skin barrier is too compact. Nanoparticulate UV filters are significantly larger than all soluble filters and cannot penetrate the skin into the body.
The use of nano-sized filters in sunscreens has therefore not only increased the quality of sunscreen filters in recent years, but also their safety for human health. The demonization of the term 'nano' lacks any rational basis.