The inhalation of nanoclays causes only minimal and temporary lung damage.

The instillation of sepiolite nanoclays in the lungs of rats led to a temporary inflammation of the lungs only. No adverse effects on other organs were observed ^[1]. However, these nanoparticles caused the formation of multi-core giant cells (so-called giant cells). The biological significance of this observation, however, is still unclear. A study with workers of a plant for the production of sepiolite nanoclays has shown that the pulmonary function of workers who were exposed to a higher dust concentration was significantly worse ^[2].