Nanotoxic impacts on staple food crops: There’s plenty of room for the unpredictables

Abstract

As much as nanotechnology hit the headlines decades ago, currently nanotoxicity has become more than a reality than a threat. Even as nanotechnology is proven, nanotoxicity is well accomplished too. This review specifically concentrates on the area that is close to the consumers, that is the effect of nanomaterials (NMs) on staple food crops. Nanoimpacts impacting primary producers of the food pyramid, cannot be overlooked. Crucial issues on this topic, that have not caught the attention nor action of those concerned has been highlighted in this review. The amount of data and research in this direction was found to be scanty and scattered. Strong emphasis has been made to the fact that NMs when exposed to plants are accumulated and passed on to the second generation seeds and plant parts. This is perhaps a critical concern, that will not just have consequences as of now, but will have permanent and long lasting impacts on the future progenies too. The lack of life cycle assessment of the NMs prior to releasing them to plant interactions and the eventual bioaccumulation and corroborative effects on the plant system if not evaluated, will have more serious implications. This review is aimed at creating a public awareness, that the possibility of nanomaterials entering the consumers and other trophic levels of the food chain is inevitable under the current circumstances. Mitigation methods and check points prior to releasing the NMs to plants systems and risk assessment of specific NMs to specific plants under specified environments is suggested to give a clear overview and insights to prevention rather than a delayed and expensive cure strategy.