"Water can be purified using Silver Sol liquid. By applying four drops of Silver Sol liquid into eight ounce glass of water, and letting it stand for about two minutes, it will purifiy even raw river water. Add 32 ounces of liquid Silver Sol to a 55 gallon drum of water to keep your water storage purified for years."
Registered: 01/04/02
Posts: 1228
Loc: Eastern MA, USA
An excerpt from Wikipedia for you: "Currently, colloidal silver is marketed as an alternative medical remedy, though there is no scientific evidence of its effectiveness for any medical condition.[1][2] Excessive use can result in argyria, a form of silver toxicity."
Read more at Wikipedia or another reference, if you wish to do so. I'll stick with silver threads woven into my non-stink clothing to take advantage of silver's antimicrobial properties. Emergency rooms use a preparation called "Silvadene" on some burns. I figure there is a reason that is is available only by prescription. Chalk up using colloidal silver for water treatment next to using grapefruit seed extract (GSE) for the same purpose. No thanks!
Registered: 03/17/07
Posts: 374
Loc: Fredericksburg, VA
I forget exactly what it was called, but they used some sort of silver-something ointment on me in the emergency room when I got second and third degree burns from boiling water on my hand and wrist. Gotta watch the camp stove . . . <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
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Registered: 01/04/02
Posts: 1228
Loc: Eastern MA, USA
It was probably Silvadene or a similar preparation with a different name. Basically, this is a sterile preparation of petrolatum (Vaseline) with silver. The petroleum jelly blocks air from irritating the nerve endings while the silver kills "germs." Silver preparations have been used in burn treatments for years. There may be something else used now, but silver-containing eye drops used to be placed in newborns' eyes immediately after birth to prevent blindness from possible contamination during birth.
Registered: 08/17/03
Posts: 23
Loc: Alexandria, VA
The American Red Cross fields a low cost system using colloidal silver in the filter. Not quite UL but you never know what you may have to resort to when trekking around.
Registered: 01/04/02
Posts: 1228
Loc: Eastern MA, USA
Interesting article.
Going back to the original post, the idea was to add a few drops of colloidal silver directly to water. The Red Cross is distribting a clay filter that also contains colloidal silver. Some filters and even reservoirs and hoses have silver in their coatings to inhibit bacterial growth. Drops of silver in the water VS silver in a filter sound like totally different approaches to me.
CM seems that the silver added to the ceramic would be held there and wouldn't leach into the water? I could be way off. I'm no scientist. But I would avoid just ingesting the stuff. Bleach drops are bad enough. To me any of the purifing tab etc. would be bad. I like to filter then boil most questionable water.
Registered: 01/04/02
Posts: 1228
Loc: Eastern MA, USA
The items featuring silver that I've used have silver ion coatings that kill beastie buildup in the surfaces or within the filter. Who likes black mold or other contaminants growing inside tubes and bladders? Also, I read somewhere that pond scum, even the invisible stuff, shortens the life of filters. I don't like the idea of actually ingesting colloidal silver. Small amounts in topical preparations don't much worry me, though. When feasible, I'll restrict my silver to jewelry... <w>
Registered: 01/04/02
Posts: 1228
Loc: Eastern MA, USA
YES!
I have a few shirts with silver threads. One long-sleeved one for winter weekends has been quite satisfactory. I also bought some short-sleeved summer-weight "Silvermax" shirts from <dresswelloutdoors.com.> The lighter ones do snag really easily, but for about $10, and their comfort level, I can live with replacing 2 T-shirts each summer. I found I could wear one of these shirts for several days with no stink in the summer, hiking the AT in Virginia. I sweat like a racehorse BEFORE my hot flashes kick in, so that is saying a lot. I'm tempted to recycle the snagged shirts into underwear, but haven't tried that just yet.
From what I've read about the production of 'silver based clothing' it's a very polluting process, so I am going to rinse and hike in the old stuff. As far as carrying Silver drops to treat yer water just stick with the Aqua Mira....
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Registered: 11/23/03
Posts: 430
Loc: Kitsap Peninsula, WA
I'll look it up in "Dangerous properties Of Industrial Materials" Says, "Synonym; argentum" and has warnings about silver compounds causing generalized argyria. Then I suppose, the pure silver forms a compound with other elements and molecules and is deposited in the blood vessel walls, kidneys, testes, pituitary, bronchi, etc. Once deposited in the body, there is no known method by which the silver can be eliminated, it says here. Lowestlethal dose in humans is 0.7 mg/kg of body wt. But when given a much higher dose(100 mg/kg of body wt.) to a bunch of rats only half of them died!
Be very careful with it. In the 90's colloidal silver was being touted as a wonder drug for everything snake oil salesmen could dream up (from cancer to treating water).
There were people that ingested way too much - and it turned their skin funky shades - which could be permanent.
Not a good thing! Silver has its purposes, just be careful with it.
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