摘要：On October 7, 2015, the journal EbioMedicine published an original article entitled “ Anthropogenic Carbon Nanotubes Found in the Airways of Parisian Children ”. Its main results reported the presence of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid of 69 children with asthma living in the Paris area. These nanotubes, which were in the form of aggregates of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and bundles of single-walled carbon nanotubes, were similar: (i) to those found in indoor and ambient air pollution in the same and previous studies; and (ii) to manufactured carbon nanotubes (commercially made for industrial purposes) described in a previous study. In this paper, we examine aspects inadequately covered in the article, as its main initial objective was to determine the most appropriate method for characterizing the carbonaceous ambient particles found in these children's lungs. Our analysis shows that CNTs, some of which have characteristics similar to those of manufactured CNTs described in the literature, could end up in the alveolar macrophages of people exposed to air pollution. The direct role of the CNTs in the occurrence of asthma has not yet been established, but they might transport respiratory allergenic molecules within the human body, or exacerbate asthma. Their presence shows their persistence in the lungs and calls for the implementation of measures to reduce human exposure. Studies of the release of CNTs into the environment from products containing them should be encouraged to identify the stages of their life cycle that contaminate the environment.
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