HAVE YOU EVER HEARD ABOUT NANO-PATHOLOGIES?
These are all those disorders caused by inorganic micro and nano-particles that have managed to penetrate the body, by inhalation or by ingestion. The problem is that the mechanisms are largely still to be investigated.
It should be borne in mind that man has always lived in a dusty environment, in fact nature itself is a producer of dust. But usually these are grains that do not go below the size of a few microns and at low concentrations would not seem to be particularly dangerous for human health.
In fact, it is man who is the most responsible for pollution (micro and nano-particles), both for quantity and for danger.
Today, most of the environmental and food pollution from dust is due to combustion engines, foundries, cement factories, incinerators, explosions in general , up to apparently more harmless operations such as those of welding .
In fact, when temperatures are high (during an explosion or in welding), many inorganic substances volatilize and then recombine, often in a different way from their original one, in the form of micro or nano-particles which, having very small mass, behave as a gas, remaining suspended in the air even for very long times and migrating with atmospheric events even for enormous distances. It is necessary to point out that these powders are almost never biodegradable , which means that, in practical terms, they are to be considered eternal. Furthermore, there are no effective technological systems to mitigate the danger.
THE WAYS OF ENTRANCE OF MICRO AND NANOPARTICLES
The preferred route of entry is inhalation . The suspended particles are inspired and end up in the pulmonary alveoli. If the particulate is nanometric, it can pass directly from the pulmonary alveolus to the bloodstream in just one minute. It is a short step from blood to organs, especially if you consider that nanoparticles are also able to enter red blood cells, an excellent Trojan horse to overcome any barrier. Within a short time these particles are sequestered by some tissue in the body and can end up in the liver, kidneys, lymphatic ganglia, brain or other organs.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that particulate matter, in addition to not being biodegradable, is also not biocompatible, this means that by definition it is capable of to trigger a disease within the body.
After inhalation, the most frequent route of intake for micro- and nano-debris is ingestion . The particles that float in the air sooner or later fall, settling on fruits and vegetables. The digestive system also allows particulate matter to pass through and enter the blood and lymphatic vessels. In this case, some relatively coarse particles can become trapped in the tissue of the gastric or intestinal wall.