A new study concluded that certain forms of carbon nanotubes could be as harmful as asbestos if inhaled in sufficient quantities.

The nanotubes are part of a family of carbon molecules named fullerenes, and they were discovered by Rick Smalley who had been awarded for this with 1985 Nobel Prize. Light as plastic and stronger that steel, they are being developed for use in new drugs, energy-efficient batteries and futuristic electronics.

The study, which was published in the Nature Nanotechnology, a scientific journal, examined the potential for long and short carbon nanotubes, long and short asbestos fibers, and carbon black to cause pathological responses known to be precursors of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lung lining that can take 30-40 years to appear following exposure.
The results show that long, thin multi-walled carbon nanotubes that look like asbestos fibers, behave like asbestos fibers.

“The results were clear,” says Professor Kenneth Donaldson at the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom. “Long, thin carbon nanotubes showed the same effects as long, thin asbestos fibers.”

Widespread exposure to asbestos has been described as the worst occupational health disaster in U.S. history and the cost of asbestos-related disease is expected to exceed $200 billion.

Asbestos fibers are dangerous because they are thin enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and sufficiently long to confound the lungs’ built-in clearance mechanisms for getting rid of particles.

The scientists said that the long carbon nanotubes could work in the same way if become airborne, be inhaled and get into the lungs in sufficient quantity.

However, there is also a positive side of the study. Donaldson pointed out that short or curly carbon nanotubes did not behave like asbestos.

“It’s a good news story, not a bad one. It shows that carbon nanotubes and their products could be made to be safe,” he said.