Smelly feet may be the price we have to pay for saving the planet. A new study reported by New Scientist has discovered that nanoparticles commonly found in antibacterial socks may be inadvertently raising levels of greenhouse gases.

Researchers were worried that silver nanoparticles– antibacterial agents used in a range of products, including odor-free socks– were escaping into the water system and killing friendly bacteria often used to treat wastewater.

“We are trying to find out what happens when these silver nanoparticles get into the real environment,” said Benjamin Colman, a chemist from Duke University who conducted the study. “These particles are developed with the express purpose of killing things.”

Previously, all research done on the environmental impacts of silver nanoparticles has been limited to their effects on a single microbe species within a lab. To better mimic the impact of silver in a real setting, Colman and colleagues instead looked at how high dosages effected a sample of stream water and soil in the lab. They also set up two outdoor tubs, one filled with nanoparticle-free sludge as a control, and another dosed with a concentration of nanoparticles similar to levels found in wastewater.

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