A WORLD-renowned scientist from Altrincham is calling on Government to modify ‘outdated’ laws to curb nanotoxins that he believes are responsible for half of all deaths.

Dr Graham Cliff, 65, an expert in material science, says new legislation is urgently required to remove previously undetectable nanoparticles from the air.

Dr Cliff helped develop the cutting edge technology needed to detect nanoparticles – the ‘little bits of everything’ that exist in the air.

Currently, UK law legislates against particles greater than ten microns (a millionth of a metre) in size. While this has led, for instance, to a visible reduction of soot from buildings, Dr Cliff says laws haven’t kept pace with technologies that lead to the discharge of smaller particles – the worst culprit being vehicle exhaust fumes.

“Anything inhaled that’s bigger than ten microns can be coughed out, so humans already have a mechanism for getting rid of the big,” explained Dr Cliff.

“What our bodies can’t reject are the particles that are smaller. But they’re in fact the most dangerous, being unregulated and nanotoxic.

“The smallest get up into the air and they travel around the world. Nasa has pictures of smoke from China coming over to Canada and North America.

“The law needs to be updated because at the moment it’s out of date, inadequate and arbitrary.”

Manchester University possesses one of the few £5 million Titan electron microscopes capable of zooming in to the atomic scale to see nanoparticles.

Using Titan, scientists can see how nanoparticles enter the nural cells, disrupting chemistry and provoking an auto immune response that leads to numerous diseases.

“They’re able to get into the body because they literally tunnel through the blood cells, into the blood and get into the fluid by dissolving. This is then carried around all over the body, so you end up with all these different disease conditions,” said Dr Cliff.

Scientific publications including Dr Cliff’s ‘What You Can’t See Can Still Hurt You’ paint a sobering picture of how many diseases and disorders could be attributable to nanotoxins – including stroke, heart attack and numerous cancers.

Because of the startling array of illnesses involved, Dr Cliff says he’s faced an uphill battle getting leading politicians to take notice.

He acknowledges that the issue is so big – and scary – that it’s hard to know where to begin without provoking claims of scaremongering.

“This is the problem: If people are dying separately, figures are hidden as they’re not contained in one event,” said Dr Cliff, referencing the thousands who died in London’s Great Smog of 1952, which lead to the 1956 Clean Air Act.

If – in an ideal world – the Titan could be referred to as a matter of course for post mortems, the results would be staggering, says Dr Cliff.

“Effectively, it could be proved that one in two of the population will die because of diseases caused by nanotoxins,” he said.

But Dr Cliff says policy makers need to act now, and likens Titan’s revelations to Sir Richard Doll’s early research into the dangers of smoking.

While that research led after many decades to law change, legislating to curb nanotoxins currently came down to one simple, sad fact.

“It’s cheaper to let people die,” he said.

 

Dr Cliff argues that particles from biomass incineration are part of the problem.

Barton Renewable Energy Plant will have filters to collect particles to two-and-a-half microns – within current legislation.

While arguing for that legislation to be overhauled, Dr Cliff says that it and other biomass incinerators could be made more environmentally friendly in the interim using wet electrostatic precipitation.

The method collects dust by wetting smoke, and scraping off the residue.

Responding, Jon England, Peel Energy project manager, said: “The plant design was considered in detail by the Environment Agency before an operating permit was issued in October 2012.

“The design was also considered by a range of technical experts during the plant consenting process. All were agreed that BREP meets requisite technology standards and will have an imperceptible effect on air quality.

“Studies are underway to investigate whether BREP can supply heat as well as electricity. The work is expected to take some months to complete although there are no fixed timetables.”