ABSTRACT
Unlike most other environmental pollution issues, safety assessments of nanoparticles (NPs) were meant to be the prime example on how to foresee and tackle predicted environmental concerns. For once, research efforts were ahead of mass production and potential release into environments. NPs' safety research focuses on the central question of whether the unique properties of NPs cause fundamentally different effects as compared to their larger counterparts. This chapter gives an overview of the present understanding of NP toxicity in aquatic organism. Briefly, state-of-the-art techniques to detect NPs in tissues are summarized and the present understanding of cellular and organismal NP uptake routes given. The location of NPs in tissues bears several challenges but is the first step in identifying target organs or cells and, thus, is important in the search for mechanisms of action. The evaluation of our current knowledge of cellular and organismal responses when exposed to NPs, ultimately, allows for the identification of key knowledge gaps and foresees research directions and the need to develop Adverse Outcome Pathways for NPs.
