Saturday, February 28, 2009

Why do the environmentalists have such a dread fear of silver nano-particles?

Why do the environmentalists have such dread fear of silver nano-particles?

I’ve received a number of queries asking me why the radical environmentalists seem to be so fearful of products containing silver nano-particles, including colloidal silver, and do I think there is actually any truth to their assertions that products containing silver nano-particles could cause harm to the environment.

No Real Cause for Alarm

As I stated in my blog post of Feb. 25, titled "Colloidal Silver and NanoSilver: What's the Difference?" there is no reason whatsoever for these radical environmental groups to be involved in this issue.

There has never been any problem with colloidal silver and the environment, and there has never been a problem with so-called “nano-silver” and the environment.

So what's the real reason the radical environmentalists trying to force the Environmental Protection Agency to pull out all stops and regulate silver as a dangerous “pesticide”?

I’ll answer that question in just a minute. But first, let’s take a look at some of the reasons the environmentalists cite for regulating silver.

Environmentalists Claims v/s Reality

As I explain in the February 25th blog post, the environmentalists constantly bring up the case of the film manufacturing industry which produced a chemical silver compound known as silver halide as a byproduct of film processing and manufacturing.

Many years ago, members of the film industry illegally dumped a number of tons of that caustic chemical silver compound into San Francisco bay. Over time the clams at the bottom of the bay began to absorb the massive amounts of this illegally dumped chemical form of silver, and it caused them to quit breeding. That's about the only environmental "catastrophe" the environmentalists can point to, involving a form of silver.

Of course, the bay is fine today. The claims are doing fine, too. And there is basically no film industry any more (thanks largely to the advent of digital cameras).

What’s more, the EPA now regulates silver spills very carefully. Yet by the EPA’s own standards, silver entering the environment from outside sources has been demonstrated to be so safe that even spills as high as 1,000 gallons don’t need to be reported to the EPA.

Now, if you spill as little as three gallons of chlorine, you are supposed to report that to the EPA and have the cleanup handled by a HAZMAT crew. But 1,000 gallons of silver can be spilled, and it’s basically no big deal.

Isn’t that amazing? Yet the radical environmentalists would have you believe some poor guy in Bakersfield, California washing his diabetic foot stockings that have silver nano-particles embedded into the fabric, or some natural health proponent in Boise, Idaho spraying a little bit of colloidal silver into his kitchen sink to keep the microbial count down, is going to cause an environmental catastrophe.

No Real Chance of Harm

The bottom line is that the chances of any product containing tiny silver nano-particles causing harm to the environment is just about nil, because it would have to be introduced into a relatively closed environment (like a lake, or a bay) and literally tons of it would have to be dumped into the enclosed environment in a relatively short time in order to cause any harm.

But the radical environmentalists don’t care about the facts. They constantly cite, for example, the idea that certain types of clothing that now have tiny silver nano-particles embedded into the fabric in order to help prevent infection (such as the new diabetic foot stockings, designed to prevent diabetic ulcers from becoming infected) could allow silver particles to leach out into the environment when they are washed in the washing machine. This, they claim, has the potential to create an environmental crisis.

What they NEVER tell you, as I pointed out in more detail in the February 25th blog post, is that whenever silver nano-particles leach from products they are embedded in, such as diabetic foot stockings, or computer keyboards, or whatever, they almost immediately begin to bond (in a process called “agglomeration”) with salts, minerals and other substances in their immediate environment, forming larger particle agglomerates.

Thus, the tiny silver nano-particles completely lose their nano-scale properties, becoming essentially inert.

Ludicrous Assertions

What’s more, the likelihood of enough people washing enough concentrated loads of clothing containing silver nano-particles (remember, it would take literally tons of the little particles to contaminate an enclosed waterway), and having those silver particles end up in a single enclosed environment such as a lake or bay, is just about nil.

In fact, it is ludicrous to even think about it. But this is the kind of thing the environmentalists scream about. Apparently, the idea that even a single silver nano-particle might somehow find its way into the environment gives them nightmares. They have simply demonized silver nano-particles to the point you’d think we were talking about the ebola virus.

No Harm to Plant Life, Either

As for the idea that these tiny silver nano-particles might somehow harm plant life in the environment, there is simply no evidence silver ever has, or ever will, do so.

For example, wheat and other grains are chock full of tiny particles of silver. For some reason the grains absorb silver from the ground at a higher rate than other plants. Perhaps that why they’re so good for you. And of course, their relatively high silver content causes them no harm whatsoever.

My wife sprays colloidal silver directly onto her tomato plants during growing season in order to keep the tomato fungus off them. She gets big beautiful tomatoes every time. Similarly, she recently purchased a Goji berry tree off of e-Baythat developed a leaf fungus after it arrived. She quickly sprayed it with colloidal silver, and it completely recovered and is thriving.

So the shrill cries of the environmental groups about the so-called “dangers” of silver are absolutely ridiculous on all counts.

Who’s Paying Them to Conduct This Campaign Against Silver?

The radical environmental groups behind the drive to demonsize silver get the bulk of their funding, to the tune of millions of dollars a year, from donations from corporate and individual sponsors, as well as from government grants. Our best guess is that Big Pharma is funding them through one or more surreptitious pathways to pursue this avenue of silver regulation.

After all, who stands to benefit the most from restricting silver’s availability to the general public?

As I stated in the Feb. 25 blog post, it is Big Pharma (the major drug companies) who stand to gain the most:

"Big Phama failed to get colloidal silver banned by the FDA back in 1999, succeeding only in having the FDA ban the mention of silver’s powerful antibiotic qualities from product advertising and labeling.

Of course, that backfired on them. The FDA’s 1999 'Final Ruling' on colloidal silver only served to incense the public about bureaucratic meddling in their health care choices. As a direct result of the anger generated by the FDA’s 'Final Ruling,' more people today know about and regularly use colloidal silver than ever before.

So now they are trying to restrict colloidal silver by using paid shills within the environmental movement to promote the spurious idea that 'nanosilver is harmful to the environment.'”

Their Hypocrisy Points to Who They Are Working For

Isn’t it interesting that the environmentalists are making such an outcry against silver as a possible environmental pollutant, and yet they are saying absolutely NOTHING about the tons of pharmaceutical drugs that are poured into our nations waterways every year, to the point that those drugs are now turning up in the drinking water of 46 million Americans living in our major cities?

The fact that the radical environmental groups basically ignore a real problem (potentially dangerous drugs in the drinking water of 46 million U.S. homes) in order to focus so heavily on a fabricated problem (tiny particles off silver going back into the environment they originally came from) pretty much tells you who they are working for.

Simply use the process of deduction. They won’t go after the medical/pharmaceutical industry in order to stop tons of potentially dangerous drugs from being dumped into America’s drinking water sources. But they will go after products containing silver nano-particles, which the medical/pharmaceutical industry has a history of opposing.

As Sherlock Holmes would say, “It’s elementary, my dear Watson.”

Regards,
S. Spencer Jones

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Important Links:

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Steve:

Why not get the water and air filtration industry involved as the use silver to kill bacteria growth in there products!

Why aren't these groups after them as silver is highly promoted in these industries.

ca pugh

Steve Barwick said...

Good point. C.A.

However, the water and air filtration industries, and other large industries that utilize silver nano-particles in their products, have the millions of dollars necessary to register their products with the EPA and conduct the necessary environmental impact reports, hire the right lawyers to navigate the maze of bureaucratic requirements, etc. Then, they simply pass the costs on to the consumers of their products.

On the other hand, small companies manufacturing colloidal silver for the general public don't have these kinds of funds, or the wherewithal to do environmental impact reports and hire lawyers to jump through all of the regulatory hoops for them. So they will go out of business when these new regulations are implemented.

You have to realize that the big industries that utilize silver in their products don't want colloidal silver being sold, any more than the drug companies, the EPA or the FDA.

Why? Because big industry wants to sell you, for example, silver-laced paint you can use to paint your house, for about four times the cost of regular bucket of house paint. They make a killing by adding a few cents worth of silver nanoparticles to the paint. But if you know that you can take a few cents worth of colloidal silver and mix it into your paint bucket, and imbue your paint with the exact same antimicrobial effect for a tiny fraction of the cost, you’d do that, wouldn't you?

Similarly, if you knew you could simply spray your home air filters twice a month with a few cents worth of colloidal silver, using a small pump spray bottle, and get pretty much the same antimicrobial effect as buying silver-impregnated filters for four times the cost of normal home air filters, you'd do so, wouldn't you?

If you knew you could simply add a few cents worth of colloidal silver to rinse cycle when you wash your kitchen and bathroom towels, or your bed sheets, in order to impart antimicrobial benefit to them, would you go out and spend $2,000 on a new Samsung washing machine that injects silver particles into the water during the rinse cycle? Probably not. It's far cheaper to do it yourself with colloidal silver.

The bottom line is that big industry doesn't like colloidal silver any more than the bureaucrats. They see it as stiff competition to the silver-impregnated products they want to develop and sell you at four times the normal costs. That, in a nutshell, is why they are not helping in this campaign to stop the EPA from regulating silver particles as "pesticides." The whole thing is a plot to concentrate the commercial usage of silver into the hands of big business.

Regards,
Steve

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the insight Steve,

Everybody wants a monopoly or control of their product or industry to maximize their profits. Sad the way we have reverted back to the Canaanites. The whole thing is to concentrate the usage of precious metals and everything possible into the hands of the international bankers control. Companies, Industries and countries.

Keep sharing and I will continue to pass the info on as *I will continue to speak up, NOT shut up, NOT let up; NOT give up in fact I am just warming up because I am heated up and feed up being *Betrayed, Conned, Deceived, Fleeced, Lied to, Maneuvered, Misinformed, Mislead, Scammed and Swindled by the Media and our government representatives!

Regards,
cap

Cindy Findley said...

There will be a 4-day consultation meeting of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel (FIFRA SAP) to consider and review a set of scientific issues related to the assessment of hazard and exposure associated with nanosilver and other nanometal pesticide products.

DATES: The consultation meeting will be held on November 3 - 6, 2009, from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The consultation meeting will be held at the Environmental Protection Agency, Conference Center, Lobby Level, One Potomac Yard (South Bldg.), 2777 S. Crystal Dr., Arlington, VA 22202.

Comments: The Agency encourages that written comments be submitted by October 20, 2009 and requests for oral comments be submitted by October 27, 2009. Submit your comments, identified by docket identification (ID) number EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0683, by one of the following methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) Regulatory Public Docket (7502P), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joseph E. Bailey, DFO, Office of Science Coordination and Policy (7201M), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number: (202) 564-2045; fax number: (202) 564-8382; e-mail address: bailey.joseph@epa.gov.

EPA source: http://www.FederalRegister.com

Colloidal Silver said...

Very intriguing article. I've done a lot of research about colloidal silver, but this is the first article in regards to the environment and silver particles. I've been using colloidal sliver for 2 years now and have not encountered any problems or setbacks with the product. I find it hard to believe that it could have harm on the environment. Thanks for sharing this article, it was a good read.

K said...

You wrote" whenever silver nano-particles leach from products... they almost immediately begin to bond (in a process called “agglomeration”) with salts, minerals and other substances in their immediate environment, forming larger particle agglomerates." What does "almost immediately mean? Seconds, minutes, hours? And if this is the case, how does orally consumed colloidal silver make it to microbes when it's "almost immediately" agglomerating with other particles? I am not doubting that it works against microbes, as I have seen it work "miracles". Just wondering what your take is on this "catch"

Steve Barwick said...

K, the human body has a wonderful built-in system for transporting silver ions safely through the harsh chemical environment of the body. You can read about it in my article titled "Metalloproteins – the Body’s Transport Mechanism for Ionic Silver," at this link: http://www.thesilveredge.com/metalloproteins.shtml