good info about silver water vs. 'argyria'=>long, but...

[Guest guest]

If you cheat & skip to the very end, he sums it up very nicely !!!

BTW, this has been re-posted on a site which sells stuff, otherwise it is a bit

hard to find.

What appears below was compiled by Terry Chamberlin, a very nice & helpful man

whom I've had personal contact with.

Best Wishes.

mark

****************************************

This work is a compilation on the subject of Argyria by Terry Chamberlin. Terry

is a researcher in Canada.

" The Final Word on Silver Toxicity

Quoting from G. Schauss, Ph.D.

" ...you should be advised that we recently completed an extensive review of the

scientific literature on the safety of silver, especially as it relates to its

one known potential side effect, namely, Argyria. Argyia is an irreversible

discoloration of the pigment

(skin) caused by excessive silver intake or chronic exposure to silver by

certain tissues. The amount of silver required to develop Argyria is estimated

[by the EPA] to be 3.8 grams per day. By comparison standard 10 ppm colloidal

silver contains silver in amounts equaling less than 1 milligram of silver

(1,000 micrograms = 1 milligram; 1,000 milligrams - 1 gram), which therefore

represents an amount approximately 1/500th to 1/1000th of the amount of silver

considered to be a risk in the development of Argyria.

" Most cases of Argyria reported in the medical literature over the last 100

years involved chronic intravenous or intramuscular use of the silver

preparations, most often involving a silver drug prescribed by physicians which

in most cases contained silver nitrate. Other cases of Argyria reported in the

medical literature involve application of silver preparations used for many

months or years in the treatment of the eye or vagina for certain diseases. We

could not locate a single case of orally consumed colloidal silver manufactured

in the last 25 years causing Argyria in our review of the literature. This is

probably due to the low levels of silver contained in such preparations, since

only very small amounts of silver are needed for its antiseptic effect.

" Humans consume approximately 100 micrograms of silver every day in the diet.

Additional amounts within this range would be considered safe by all reasonable

estimates, especially if the amount needed to develop Argyria would be the

equivalent of 380,000 micrograms

(or 3.8 grams) of silver a day.

" As for the efficacy of silver preparations, we found considerable scientific

evidence published over the last 75 years that a number of silver compounds can

be effective germicidal (antiseptic) agents against several hundred pathogenic

organisms. However, silver is not termed an antibiotic as some have claimed

because an antibiotic by definition is derived from a living organism.

Sincerely,

G. Schauss, Ph.D. Director, Life Sciences Division Hopkins

University [End of quote]

Dr. Schauss, Ph.D.

G. Schauss, Ph.D., is the Director of the Life Sciences Division of

the American Institute for Biosocial Research, Inc. in Tacoma, WA. He is a

member of the Government's Commission on Dietary Supplements. He holds joint

faculty positions as Associate Professor of Research and Senior Director of

Research and Development at the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine and

Health Sciences, in Tempe, AZ. And, as Associate Professor of Behavioral

Sciences at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, OR.

Dr. Schauss is an Emeritus Member of the New York Academy of Sciences, former

Chairman of the Food Policy Council of the National Council for Public Health

Policy, Founding Member of the British Society of Nutritional Medicine, Emeritus

Executive Director of the American Preventive Medical Association, Emeritus

Executive Director and current President of Citizens for Health, and a member of

the American Public Health Association and the American Association for the

Advancement of Science.

The only negative effect reported by CS users is a phenomenon called the

" Herxheimer effect " , named after doctor Karl Herxheimer (who identified this

phenomenon). Sometimes, when a person starts off for the first time ingesting a

large amount of CS, the CS is so efficient at killing pathogens in the body that

the body cannot adequately dispose of the dead pathogens through the normal

eliminative organs, and it resorts to the secondary ones, the lungs, sinuses and

skin. Or the CS user may experience diarrhea, as the body tries to flush itself

out. In that case, one merely needs to reduce or temporarily stop the CS until

the healing crisis is over, and then start taking smaller amounts of CS. A new

European Union Drinking Water Standard in draft form has removed any limitations

on silver in drinking water following the World Health Organization's

" Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality " which states, " It is unnecessary to

recommend any health-based guidelines for silver as it is not hazardous to human

health. " According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Poison

Control Center, CS is considered harmless. Dr. Etris, a senior consultant

at the Silver Institute, says there has never been any allergenic, toxic or

carcinogenic reactions to CS. The U.S. Government's Center for Disease Control

confirmed that fact in

1995.

The term Argyria describes the condition of a bluish gray color of the skin, and

Argyosis the bluing of the eye white, resulting from the use of SILVER

COMPOUNDS. To better understand the misconception regarding Argyria, I will

quote from the book " The Micro Silver Bullet " T by Dr. M. Farber 1996 page

XII (ISBN

1-887742-00-X) In reference to a " Journal of American Medical Association "

article, October 18 1995, volume

274 # 15, where cases of Argyria were cited to have been caused by silver

compounds (not colloidal silver, but silver mixed with other metals), note:

" These Case history presentations represent biased and unprofessional writing.

The author's apparent inability to understand the difference between a silver

nitrate, sulfide, or other silver compound demonstrates their lack of

understanding of basic chemical properties. The matrix, substrate, and particle

size are all critical to the varied functions and reactions with use of these

products. That is why there has not been a single case of Argyria from a

properly manufactured modern-day colloidal silver product. [editors emphasis]

The cases of Argyria reported in the 1920's and 1930's resulted because the

technology of the day was unable to produce a pure colloidal silver product with

a small enough particle size. " Ref. (4-A)

The reported cases of Argyria usually involved very high and frequent doses over

extended periods of time of silver salts/compounds such as silver sulfate,

silver nitrate, silver chloride, etc.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Poison Control Center reports no toxicity

listing for Colloidal Silver; it is therefore considered harmless in any

concentration. However all of the silver salts are identified as toxic, although

the only adverse effect noted is Argyria. Therefore the concern is with silver

salts not Colloidal Silver.

Dr Hill D.C. in his book " Colloidal Silver, A Literature Review " states

this:

" Critics of colloidal silver sometimes state that it has been known to cause

organ damage, kidney damage, pulmonary edema, atherosclerosis and death.

" These claims appear to be based on a research study on dogs in which the dogs

were deliberately killed by extremely large lethal doses of silver. At the doses

given, any heavy metal and probably many essential minerals like zinc, iron,

copper, etc. would have produced death in similar fashion. "

And again " We know that dogs died from injections of a type of protein-bound

silver in dosages ranging from

500 mg to 1.9 grams of silver depending on the frequency of administration. This

was equivalent in silver content to giving [per day] a 150 pound adult between

150 litres and 570 litres of 10 ppm colloidal silver, or between 75 and 285

liters of 20 ppm colloidal silver or between 50 and 190 litres of 30 ppm

colloidal silver. The 10 gram estimated lethal dose for humans from Goodman and

Gillman is equivalent to 1000 liters of 10 ppm colloidal silver. " In another

case an individual ingested an estimated 124 grams of silver nitrate over a

9-year period. She developed argyria and an assortment of neurological symptoms

as well... This report is often used by critics to attribute neurological

disorders to silver consumption. They curiously fail to put in perspective the

gross difference between the quantities of silver involved. "

He also reports: " The EPA publishes a reference dose (Rfd) for silver which is

an estimate of daily exposure to the entire population that is unlikely to be

associated with a significant risk of adverse effects over a lifetime. The

current Rfd for oral silver exposure is 5 micrograms/kg/day with a critical dose

estimated at 14 micrograms/kg/day... Based on this Rfd, a 150 pound adult should

not exceed 350 micrograms/day. "

Argyria is caused by the same mechanism that is used when developing

photographs. It is the same thing. If you start with a salt of silver, and

expose it to light, some of it will reduce to silver metal. Then if you have a

developer (caffeine is a good developer) in an alkaline solution (blood is

normally alkaline), additional silver will plate out from the compound onto the

metallic particles, making them grow. That is the photographic process, and that

is how one gets argyria.

Now, the process requires silver salts. There are no substitutes. Colloidal

silver contains no silver salts. Basically silver salts are what are in

unexposed film. Silver colloid is what is in a developed photograph. If you put

a developed photo into the sun what does it do. It fades, it doesn't turn

darker. That is because a developed photo has no silver salts to add to the

silver particles since it is already nothing but reduced silver particles.

Thus colloidal silver cannot cause argyria. Theoretically I guess one could take

CS with sufficient ppm and in sufficient quantity to cause aggregation, but one

would likely drown from too much water first, as the amounts would be truly

phenomenal.

In years of poring over hardcopy of obscure medical cases no one has yet found a

single report of any adverse reaction to very fine particles of very fine silver

floating in very pure water.

The following two letters to and from the FDA are most informative:

October 14th, 1999 Food and Drug Administration U.S. Department Of Health and

Human Services Public Health Service

5600 Fishers Lane Rockville, MD 20857

Dear Sirs/Madam,

Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and in regard your August 17th, 1999

ruling regarding colloidal silver, could you please supply the following

documentation on which you based your decision?

1. The number of deaths related to the consumption of colloidal silver.

2. The number of allergic reactions to the consumption of colloidal silver.

3. The number of harmful drug interactions from both OTC and prescription drugs

when combined with colloidal silver.

4. The number of reported cases of Argyria from colloidal silver made with the

AC or DC electrical process.

5. The number of cases of Argyria from colloidal silver that did not contain

protein stabilizers.

Thank you for your time and consideration of this request.

Sincerely, Brent Finnegan

The FDA response:

Public Health Service Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Office of Training

and Communication Freedom of Information Staff HFD-205

5600 Fishers Lane 12 B 05 Rockville, land 20857 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND

HUMAN SERVICES

November 3, 1999

In Response Refer to File: F99-22589 Brent Finnigan Takoma (sic), WA 98408

Dear Mr. Finnigan:

This is in response to your request of 10/14/99, in which you requested adverse

events associated with the use of Colloidal Silver. Your request was received in

the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research on

10/25/99.

We have searched the records from FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS)

and have been unable to locate any cases that would be responsive to your

request.

Charges of $3.50 (Search $3.50, Review $0, Reproduction $0, Computer time $0)

will be included in a monthly invoice. DO NOT SEND ANY PAYMENT UNTIL YOU RECEIVE

AN INVOICE.

If there are any problems with this response, please notify us in writing of

your specific problem(s).

Please reference the above file number.

Sincerely,

Hal Stepper Freedom of Information Technician Office of Training and

Communications Freedom of Information Staff, HFD-205

Concerning the rumours of renal failure or liver damage from Colloidal Silver, I

finally tracked down a source.

The remarks therein to renal damage (not failure) is part of an unreferenced

quote supposedly from two doctors named Man C. Fung, MD, and Weintraub,

MD " ....While silver deposits derive from dietary

(e.g., mushrooms, milk, and bran), environmental or industrial exposure, the

indiscriminate use of CSP's [silver proteins] and other silver medicinals adds

unnecessary exposure and may result in argyria. Although primarily a cosmetic

concern, argyria is irreversible and has no effective treatment. In addition,

neurological deficits and diffuse silver deposition in visceral organs have been

reported with long-term use of oral silver products. Renal damage and metal fume

fever have been reported with high silver exposures..... "

There is no listing, however, of this article in the JAMA (Journal of the

American Medical Association) article title, or anything else - not even the

year.

You will notice, in this quote, the references to CSP's, silver medicinals,

silver products - none of them pure Colloidal Silver. I have emphasized those

terms to draw your attention to them. The very conservative estimate of 3.8

grams/day of silver needed to be a danger of any kind is an amount

physiologically impossible for a human being to ingest in 10-20 ppm Colloidal

Silver. (Could you drink 9-18 gallons of water each day?)

In conclusion, although I and quite a few others - doctors, scientists and

various researchers - have diligently searched all available medical records,

and as you saw previously in this article, even asked the FDA, no one to date

has discovered a single medical report of anyone being hurt in any way from any

amount of electro-colloidal silver (silver particles electrically disbursed in

distilled or deionized water). There are numerous reports of various

consequences from ingesting or topically applying very large quantities of

silver salts, silver compounds and silver proteins. There are even cases of

people suffering from ingestion and exposure to huge amounts

(10-100+ grams) of silver, such as the " Blue-blood " royalty who regularly

ingested large amounts of mechanically ground-up silver powder. But there is

more reason and evidence to be cautious of ingesting virtually every vitamin or

mineral our bodies require than there is to be cautious of Colloidal Silver.

[End of article]

My comments: I have heard of a number of negative reports from both medical and

Naturopathic doctors, yet none of them can substantiate any of these reports.

Silver salts and compounds, yes. Colloidal silver, no.

I personally have drunk 12-16 oz/day each day for the last six years. I am not

blue, and I rarely get sick.

Terry Chamberlin