I was one of those Mother's who had to formula feed. I had planed to breast feed but my body would not allow it. This threw me into a new world of what should I give my son? Recently a new report just released by Friends of the Earth, found Nano-particles in Baby Formula. We all need to take a second and educate ourselves because our babies depend on us!
What is nanotechnology, what are Nanoparticles/nanomaterials?
Nanoparticles are tiny little engineered particles, about 1000x thinner than a human hair! The term ‘nanotechnology’ basically describes the manipulation of things at a really, really small scale, several hundred times smaller than our blood cells. The interesting and also the concerning thing about manipulating materials at this scale is that familiar substances change in ways that scientists may not expect or predict. Let me give you an example. We’re all familiar with the thick white sunscreen worn by lifeguards, etc. If we use nanotechnology to reduce the size of those particles to the nanoscale, suddenly those white zinc particles become transparent. This can be useful. The problem is that at this tiny scale, the particles change in other ways as well. We now know that those zinc nanoparticles are also much more toxic than the larger zinc particles – and unfortunately that appears to be true of many nanoparticles. So a key concern for us is the uncertainty associated with nanotechnology. That’s why we need new safety testing before nanoparticles are used in products.
Three (3) different types of nanoparticles were found, including:
● “needle-like” nano hydroxyapatite
● nano TiO2 (titanium dioxide)
● nano silica dioxide
