PingBack from http://sedgemore.com/2008/11/nanosilver-fad-could-rot-the-brain/

Nano-silver seems to be the flavour of the moment, judging by the number of articles appearing!  Intriguingly, the Scotsman article starts out with with a good old British scare-story tone (you could have thought you were reading about the latest substance abuse fad), but then gets into some serious issues.

All the evidence suggests that nano-silver isn't that toxic to people in small doses (the environment is another matter) - but it still seems to be foolishness to allow people to self-administer a powerful material (because it is a potent antimicrobial)  with little or no idea of what they are doing.  And it seems even more foolish to have a regulatory system that seems powerless to do anything about it!

And finally, just to flag up that there have been a coupe of good resources on nano-silver published recently.

The first is Sam Luoma's extensive and excellent review of the science and what it means - available at http://www.nanotechproject.org/process/assets/files/7036/nano_pen_15_final.pdf  (my comments on the report are published at: http://2020science.org/2008/09/09/8909-nano-silver-old-problems-or-new-challenges/ )

The second is a short but again excellent background piece published by ICON, and available at: http://cohesion.rice.edu/centersandinst/icon/resources.cfm?doc_id=12722

Andrew Maynard

The nano-silver debate rumbles on. Nice to see that the important role played by Vicki Stones hairdresser, as exclusively revealed on SAFENANO continues to get a mention. This material seems to be cropping up everywhere and largely in applications where direct exposure to humans is the intended outcome, either by ingestion as a food supplement, or topical application. Many of the products are also available in a form for spray application, raising also the possibility of the inhalation exposure.   It is a little concerning when a product which is intended for human exposure, which has demonstrable strong antibacterial properties can enter the marketplace with apparently no requirement to demonstrate either its usefulness or the potential risks. Its also worth pointing out that there is almost no research out there which has looked at the consequences of ingestion of any nanomaterials. Surely a gap which must be filled soon.

Rob Aitken