The radical anti-silver environmentalists just won’t quit.
Their hatred of colloidal silver and other silver-based antimicrobial products runs so deep…
… they simply don’t care what sort of hyperbole and exaggeration they have to resort to in order to dupe their followers into pushing the EPA to regulate silver as a “pesticide” and remove it from as many commercial products as possible.
Here’s the story you won’t get from Friends of the Earth…
Yes, the radical leaders in the environmental group Friends of the Earth (FOE) are at it again.
In spite of numerous requests from their own members to leave colloidal silver out of the fray in their drive to force the EPA to regulate products containing silver nanoparticles as “pesticides”…
…the FOE continues to push for stronger and stronger federal regulations of silver nanoparticles, with no exemptions for safe, natural colloidal silver – the world’s most powerful natural infection-fighting substance!
You may remember that back in 2008 the Friends of the Earth teamed up with the Center for Technology Assessment and other environmental groups in a bid to force the EPA to more stringently regulate silver nanoparticles being used in commercial products (including colloidal silver) as “pesticides” under the EPA’s antiquated FIFRA regulations.
Four of the top colloidal silver products in the U.S. -- Sovereign Silver, ASAP Silver, Meso Silver and Utopia Silver – as well as many lesser known brands of colloidal silver, were listed in an addendum to the petition to the EPA, as examples of products that needed to be hyper-regulated.
Later, after Friends of the Earth leadership privately assured their members in emails that they had no intention of pushing for the removal of colloidal silver products from the marketplace…
They’re B-a-c-k…
Now the Friends of the Earth are back, and they’re rallying their worldwide membership base to push the EPA into carrying out the first two steps in a regulatory process…
…that will ultimately lead to a tough new regulatory environment for all commercial products that utilize antimicrobial silver.
Scare Tactics Galore
I’ll tell you more about that in just a minute.
But first, let’s take a look at some of the scare tactics used by Friends of the Earth in their recent email, which was designed to dupe their membership into urging the EPA to more harshly regulate commercial products containing antimicrobial silver.
Here are some word-for-word excerpts from their latest email to their members, urging them to help push the EPA into taking stronger steps to regulate nanosilver products.
The email starts ominously, like this (while you read this, imagine the theme music to the movie, Jaws):
“It could be in your toothpaste, in your child’s bottle, or in the cleaning products under your sink.
You may even be touching it right now through the antibacterial coating on your keyboard or on your socks and clothing.
What is this ubiquitous mystery substance?
It’s called nano-silver, and it’s a powerful germ killer.
Nano-silver is the most commonly used of a host of nanoscale -- or extremely tiny, atom-sized -- materials that show up in more than 1,300 consumer products.”
Sounds scary, doesn’t it? Especially that part about “You may even be touching it right now” – which is obviously written to make you feel icky all over.
Problem is, it’s all just a scare tactic -- carefully scripted drama to make you afraid of something that’s never caused you a lick of harm in all of the days of your life, and likely never will.
They call it a “mystery substance,” yet there’s no “mystery” to it at all.
The very water you drink out of the tap (or bottle) contains trace quantities of nano-silver, along with many other minerals.
Indeed, it always has been in your water supply, ever since you were a little baby. It was there long before you were born. And it will always be there, because it’s ubiquitous in the environment.
The radical environmentalist groups like Friends of the Earth just don’t seem to understand this one simple fact:
Not man, but instead, the very environment they claim to be “protecting” is actually the most prolific producer of silver nanoparticles…yes…on the face of the earth!
What’s more, though silver nanoparticles are ubiquitous, they’ve never harmed you.
And the EPA already regulates how much you can safely ingest (EPA Red Document, page 2, 4th paragraph) in drinking water.
You see, silver is everywhere, throughout the earth.
And not chiefly in big chunks, or in long veins in an underground mine like you see in the movies.
It exists mostly as “trace silver” – millions of TONS of tiny microscopic and sub-microscopic silver particles that abound as dissolved silver in the world’s oceans, lakes, rivers and streams, as well silver ions and silver nanoparticles in the ground.
By comparison, man’s contribution to the amount of silver in the environment – through the relatively miniscule 300 or 400 commercial products containing nanosilver – is infinitesimally small.
And even the silver man uses in commercial products came from the environment in the first place!
More Scary Stuff From FOE…
But Friends of the Earth doesn’t stop with mere drama and scary hyperbole. Indeed, they move seamlessly from drama to outright fabrication.
Here’s another excerpt from their recent email missive to their members:
“Currently, nano-silver is not regulated and is seldom labeled -- but that could change soon as a result of Friends of the Earth’s work to push the EPA to take action.”
Not regulated? Really?
Then how did the EPA manage to fine IOGEAR, a California-based consumer electronics company, a whopping $208,000 simply for manufacturing and selling a computer mouse that contained antimicrobial silver nanoparticles as a protective feature?
You see, thanks to the environmentalist drive to regulate into oblivion all products containing antimicrobial silver…
…all U.S. product manufacturers must now register their products with the EPA as a “pesticide” if the product contains antimicrobial silver, and if the product’s antimicrobial silver qualities are mentioned in the labeling and the advertising.
According to press reports, IOGEAR apparently advertised their product’s antimicrobial silver features to their customers, but failed to properly register the product with the EPA as a “pesticide.”
And EPA came down on them like stink on a monkey’s butt.
According to this article, the EPA sang them a song of woe to the tune of $208,000…
…making a screaming example out of them that has scared the bejabbers out of just about every other U.S. manufacturer of products containing silver nanoparticles.
Which, of course, is exactly what the EPA and their radical environmentalist cronies intended.
You see, this isn’t about “protecting the environment.” Not by a long shot.
It’s about collecting those nice, hefty product registration fees, and advancing a political agenda to increase the power and enforcement reach of an out-of-control bureaucracy known as the EPA…
…while destroying the rights of product manufacturers to give their customers the protective antimicrobial features they want most.
Naturally, the radical anti-silver environmentalist trumpeted throughout the media this EPA action against IOGEAR, calling it a “great victory” in the fight to protect the environment from the evil silver nanoparticles.
So if you’ve been wondering what ever happened to all of those great products that were supposed to come out with protective, antimicrobial silver coatings to help keep the superpathogens away, now you know.
Look, everyone knows that labeling silver as a “pesticide,” and registering products that contain antimicrobial silver, is a big joke.
But after the IOGEAR debacle, no one wants to risk the wrath of Khan from the EPA.
So the idea touted by Friends of the Earth that silver nanoparticles are “not regulated” is utter balderdash.
They are very strictly regulated – and to the point that you either dance to the EPA’s tune, or you pay through the nose and lose your ability to sell your product based on its most favorable qualities.
By the way, here’s a short excerpt from IOGEAR’s most recent description of themselves on their web site:
“The company is environmentally-conscious and emphasizes conserving natural resources to employees and customers through its GREEN initiatives.
In addition, IOGEAR has partnered with Trees for the Future to plant one tree for every product purchased on its Web site or by members of its GREEN initiative partner program.”
Do you think they got the message from the EPA and their radical environmentalist cohorts?
Do you think IOGEAR figured out who’s in charge – real fast – after they were blindsided by the EPA to the tune of $208,000 and afterwards and bludgeoned by the radical environmentalists who wanted to make an example of them?
And yet, Friends of the Earth have the gall to bald-faced lie to their own members, saying, “Currently, nanosilver is not regulated…”
…as if the EPA has no power whatsoever to regulate the manufacturers of products containing antimicrobial silver!
My question: Would you buy a used car from one of these guys?
“Seldom Labeled”?
And what about the contention by Friends of the Earth that products containing nano-silver are “seldom labeled.”
Are you kidding me?
When products first began appearing on the market with antimicrobial silver, every one of them touted their protective features on their product labeling, and in their advertising.
After all, that was the point of adding silver to the product!
Then, Friends of the Earth and other environmental radicals freaked out at what they supposedly foresaw as a pending environmental catastrophe…
…with silver particles apparently escaping into the environment and indiscriminately attacking everything in their paths, like the infuriated Indians at Custer’s last stand.
So the Friends of the Earth and their radical cohorts began pushing the EPA to more stringently regulate commercial products containing silver.
As a result, the EPA reacted by passing new regulations stating, basically, that if a company manufactures a product (think in terms of computer keyboards, phone handles, and other contact surfaces)…
…that is labeled or advertised as utilizing silver for antimicrobial purposes, then it must register the product as a “pesticide” with the EPA.
But…if the company does not label the product as having antimicrobial benefits, or advertise it as such, then it can contain silver without registering as a “pesticide.”
Stupid rule? Well, yeah. After all, why would you want to add antimicrobial silver nanoparticles to a product you’re producing if you can’t advertise their benefits to the public?
But soon afterwards radical environmentalists began calling this rule a “loop hole,” even though they were instrumental in bringing it about.
You see, the regulation is very much like the FDA’s 1999 “Final Ruling” against colloidal silver, which states that you can sell colloidal silver as long as you don’t label it or advertise it for its antimicrobial benefits!
In short, this so-called “loophole” against truth-telling is what gives the regulators the ability to step in and shut a company down, fine them, or pull the plug on their silver-based product…
…if the manufacturer so much as dares tell the public the well-known facts regarding the myriad protective benefits of antimicrobial silver without first registering the product and jumping through all of the expensive EPA hoops!
Now the fact of the matter is this:
After the EPA implemented that “don’t ask, don’t tell” regulation, most companies that were manufacturing products containing antimicrobial silver simply…
…pulled the antimicrobial claims from their advertising and labeling, and sold off the remaining stock of their products as quickly as they could, at steep discounts.
That’s exactly what the environmentalists wanted.
The whole thing was designed to bring a screeching halt to the sale of products containing antimicrobial silver.
But now the Friends of the Earth, who were instrumental in getting this regulation implemented…
…turn around and hypocritically claim that commercial products containing antimicrobial silver are “seldom labeled” -- as if it’s some devious plot by the product manufacturers to secretly include silver nanoparticles in commercial products in order to destroy the environment.
The hypocrisy of the radical environmentalists unfortunately knows no bounds.
More Scary Horseshit From Friends of the Earth
The email from Friends of the Earth to their members goes on to tell whopper after whopper. Here’s another great example:
“Nano-silver can be an important ‘last resort’ bacteria killer when used by medical professionals.
But when it’s incorporated into thousands of products used every day, it could worsen a rapidly growing public health threat -- the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, or super germs.”
Again I must ask: Really?
Colloidal silver has been used by millions upon millions of people over the past 30 years as a nutritional supplement. Yet how many colloidal silver users do you know today who are more susceptible to antibiotic-resistant bacteria?
Indeed, colloidal silver users as a whole are far less susceptible to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
It’s the users of Big Pharma’s prescription antibiotic drugs who are more susceptible to the super-pathogens!
So who does Friends of the Earth think they’re fooling with this nonsense?
As I mentioned in a previous article on this topic, the cause of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is the overuse of Big Pharma’s prescription antibiotic drugs – NOT SILVER!
…where’s all of the plaintive cries from Friends of the Earth for regulating prescription pharmaceutical drugs as a threat to the environment?
Well, there are no such cries, are there?
…that they apparently simply haven’t had the time to look into this issue of pharmaceutical drugs contaminating the environment.
Nope.
But let me give the environmentalists a hand. What they’re trying to say, however clumsily, is this:
“If you allow products to be made with antimicrobial silver in order to protect the public from the spread of antibiotic-resistant pathogens, then one day those pathogens might become resistant to silver, too.”
There, I said if for them, since they’re apparently too stupid to say it correctly, themselves.
The problem is, even when correctly stated, it’s still a farce.
It’s very difficult for pathogens to become resistant to silver.
The Truth About Silver-Resistance
According to Lucian Lucia, associate professor of chemistry at North Carolina State University, and chemist George John of City College of New York…
…bacteria simply cannot build up a resistance to silver nanoparticles as they can to antibiotics, because of the multi-faceted way the silver nanoparticle attacks pathogens — destroying the structure of the cells and killing them.
You see, prescription antibiotic drugs suppress the activity of bacteria, but don’t necessarily kill them.
And unlike antibiotic drugs which generally utilize a single course of action against pathogens, silver works in a multi-faceted manner, attacking infectious microorganisms from many different angles.
Therefore, it is very difficult and extremely rare for pathogens to become “resistant” to silver.
“That’s the beauty of silver,” Professor Lucia says. “There’s no way to develop a serious resistance to it.”
Generally speaking, if one facet of silver’s antimicrobial arsenal fails to work on a specific pathogen, another facet will do the job handily.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. David Weber agrees, arguing that the use of silver in commercial products poses very little danger of creating silver-resistant microbes, due to silver’s multiple modes of operation.
As reported in the Los Angeles Times, in August of 2008:
“…Dr. David Weber, an infectious disease and public health expert at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, isn't convinced that silver resistance will prove much of a problem.
Resistance to antibiotics occurs quite readily in bacteria once prolonged exposure to, say, penicillin, occurs. But there's little reason to suppose that resistance to silver would develop so easily, he says.
An antibiotic like penicillin works by hitting a bacterium in a limited fashion, at specific sites. Because the killing is done precisely, the bacterium has a good chance of developing a mutation that would confer resistance.
In contrast, silver kills microbes in a broad, unspecific fashion -- like tossing a bomb at a bacterium. It hits many essential points such as a bacterium's entire respiratory system. This makes it much more difficult for silver-resistance to develop.
And even if tolerance did develop, Weber says, increasing the dose of silver the bacterium is exposed to will solve the problem in most cases.”
In short, microbes simply don’t grow resistant to silver anywhere near as easily as they do to synthetic antibiotic drugs, thanks in large part to silver’s broad spectrum of action.
And even if a microbe does grow resistant to silver, increasing the dosage tends to take care of the problem!
So at best, the Friends of the Earth are being extremely disingenuous with their members when they write them claiming that the use of antimicrobial silver in commercial products could “worsen a rapidly growing public health threat” of antibiotic-resistant germs.
The reality is, silver will help SOLVE the rapidly growing health threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Indeed, if the radical environmentalists would simply get the hell out of the way and allow product manufacturers to incorporate antimicrobial silver into their products…
…silver would save hundreds of thousands and quite possibly millions of lives annually, by stopping the spread of the super-pathogens!
Them’s the facts, folks. You might argue them. But they certainly have more validity than the “sky is falling” rhetoric and hyperbole of the radical environmentalists.
One Final Bit of Lunacy From Friends of the Earth
The Friends of the Earth goes on to say in their recent email to their members:
“Moreover, worryingly little is known about nano-silver’s long-term effects on the environment and human health when used at such a mass scale.
Because nanoparticles are so small, they can be more readily absorbed by tissues and individual cells in our bodies.
Silver is also the second-most toxic metal for aquatic organisms like fish, crabs and water plants, and it could accumulate up the food chain.”
As I stated at the very beginning of this article, silver is already in the environment on a “mass scale.”
Millions of tons of trace silver already exist, in the form of dissolved silver in the oceans, lakes, rivers and streams. And millions of tons more exist in and on the very ground we walk on in the form of silver ions and silver nanoparticles.
So to say “little is known about nano-silver’s long-term effects on the environment and human health” is ludicrous.
The environment has been swimming in nanosilver for eons, with little or no detrimental effects whatsoever.
The oceans, rivers, lakes and streams of the world contain tons upon tons of trace silver in the form of dissolved silver – and they are basically teaming with healthy wildlife from the tiniest aquatic microbes to the largest whales.
What’s more, people have been swigging down colloidal silver for the past century, with nothing but beneficial results, except in those few rare cases where excessive quantities were ingested for extended periods of time, resulting in argyria.
An estimated 10 million colloidal silver users in North America alone can attest to the beneficial qualities of ingested silver.
So the environmentalists’ absurd contention that you’ll be harmed from using a toothpaste that contains silver nanoparticles…
…or you’ll be invaded by “toxic metal” from using a computer keyboard that has silver nanoparticles imbedded into the plastic…
…is just pure fear-mongering designed to advance a political agenda and boost the regulatory scope and reach of a federal agency already well-known for its egregious anti-business and anti-consumer policies.
Can We Win This Battle?
At this point, I honestly don’t think we can win the battle against the radical environmentalists and their cronies in the EPA who are trying to stop product manufacturers from utilizing antimicrobial silver in order to give the public the protection they need to prevent the spread of dangerous pathogens.
In my personal opinion, the outcome of this battle was decided a long time ago, and everyone is just going through the motions of EPA hearings and meetings (aka “dog and pony” shows) until the pre-ordained conclusion has been reached. Though I’d love to be wrong about this, I don’t think I am.
Even as you read this article (Aug 2011) the EPA has just finished taking comments from commercial products manufacturers and environmentalist groups, as they work to craft regulations designed to make it more difficult for product manufacturers to utilize antimicrobial silver in commercial products.
And of course, the radical environmentalists once again loaded the EPA comment system with shrill cries from their members, begging the EPA to institute harsher regulatory constraints against products containing antimicrobial silver.
Naturally, the big losers in this battle will be the American consumers.
Product manufacturers simply won’t risk the money to incorporate antimicrobial silver into their products, only to have the radical environmentalists groups or the EPA destroy their investment.
But What About Colloidal Silver?
The EPA has already been put on notice by thousands of ardent colloidal silver users to keep their hands off colloidal silver.
But will they listen to consumers?
The answer to that question remains to be seen.
But considering the recent European ban on colloidal silver, and the way our own FDA has been working to “harmonize” (with emphasis on “harm”) our nutritional supplement laws with those of Europe…
…my suspicion is that we have not seen the last of the bureaucratic attacks against over-the-counter sale of colloidal silver, by any stretch of the imagination.
Of course, the simple solution to the whole threat against colloidal silver is to own the means of colloidal silver production.
By that, I mean, obtain a high-quality colloidal silver generator, so you can make all of the colloidal silver you could ever need, in the comfort and privacy of your own home, for just pennies per batch.
The bureaucrats may regulate the sale of colloidal silver into oblivion, but if you own the means of colloidal silver production, they can never take it away from you!
You can learn more about making your own colloidal silver – quickly, inexpensively and for just pennies – at The Silver Edge web site.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to report on the environmentalist’s ludicrous campaign against colloidal silver and commercial products that incorporate antimicrobial silver into the makeup…
…and try to make sense of the environmentalist mind-set that would rather see millions of people continue to die from the spread of infectious microorganisms…
…than allow businesses to use safe, natural, antimicrobial silver to help protect the public against the spread of the deadly super-pathogens.
Until my next article, I remain…
Yours for the safe, sane and responsible use of colloidal silver,
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Important Note and Disclaimer: The contents of this Ezine have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Information conveyed herein is from sources deemed to be accurate and reliable, but no guarantee can be made in regards to the accuracy and reliability thereof. The author, Steve Barwick, is a natural health journalist with over 30 years of experience writing professionally about natural health topics. He is not a doctor. Therefore, nothing stated in this Ezine should be construed as prescriptive in nature, nor is any part of this Ezine meant to be considered a substitute for professional medical advice. Nothing reported herein is intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. The author is simply reporting in journalistic fashion what he has learned during the past 17 years of journalistic research into colloidal silver and its usage. Therefore, the information and data presented should be considered for informational purposes only, and approached with caution. Readers should verify for themselves, and to their own satisfaction, from other knowledgeable sources such as their doctor, the accuracy and reliability of all reports, ideas, conclusions, comments and opinions stated herein. All important health care decisions should be made under the guidance and direction of a legitimate, knowledgeable and experienced health care professional. Readers are solely responsible for their choices. The author and publisher disclaim responsibility or liability for any loss or hardship that may be incurred as a result of the use or application of any information included in this Ezine.
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