Scientific References
Pharmacopeia
- Low concentrations of silver ions are antibacterial.
- Adverse effects, symptoms of poisoning stem from the corrosive and caustic nature of silver nitrate. 75% silver nitrate had an ill effect when applied to newborn infants by mistake, instead of 1%. (1% is the same as 10 000ppm, 75% is the same as 750 000ppm)
- Silver protein is antibacterial due to the low concentrations of silver ions.
Environmental Protection Agency, Integrated Risk Information System
- The critical effect observed is a cosmetic effect, with no associated adverse health effects.
- Argyria, the critical effect upon which the RfD for silver is based, occurs at levels of exposure much lower than those levels associated with other effects of silver. (RfD is 10 grams in a 70 year life time or 0.39 milligrams of silver per day. This equates to 21.67 ml per day
Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease registry, U.S. Public Health Service.
Toxicological Profile for Silver December 1990
- RfD is 25grams over in a 70 year life time. (Differs from above)
- Silver is non-toxic.
- Argyria is the only acknowledged severe toxic reaction and is characterized as only a “cosmetic problem”. It requires an accumulation of between 2 and 4 gms of silver to manifest argyria. The report assumed an oral retention factor of 0.04 i.e. 4% of ingested silver is retained. They assessed a total intake of 25 gms of silver over a lifetime of a 70kg male with a 4% retention giving a 1gm total body silver after 70yrs. From this baseline they worked out the RfD or daily reference dose as 0.014mg/kg/day for a 70kg male. (4) pg 3. This equates to 98 micrograms/day/70kg male.
FDA 1999
- No adverse effects have been reported to the FDA
American Biotec Labs
- Silver is non-toxic
World Health Organization 1996
- Silver may be used in drinking water in concentrations of up to 0.1ppm (0.2mg per 2liter per day)
- Silver is non-toxic
Dean, W et al. 2001
Reduction of Viral load in AIDS Patients With Intravenous Mild Silver Protein: 3 case Studies Clinical Practice of Alternative Medicine
- Documents i.v. mild silver protein with 3 HIV patients with dramatic viral load reduction
- Side effect Jarisch-Herxheimer only
Temple University 1995
- Mild silver protein inhibits HIVirus replication on T cells.
- There is little if any toxicity.
South African Bureau of Standards 2005
MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) for Bicosil 19ppm, a patented ionised silver product owned by Starlight Laboratories (Pty) LTD.
- In Mueller-Hinton broth
- Staphylococcus aureus -inhibited at 1.2ppm -killed at 2.4ppm
- Pseudomonas aeruginosa -inhibited at 1.2ppm -killed at 2.4ppm
- Escherichia coli -inhibited at 2.4 -killed at 4.7ppm
- Proteus vulgaris -inhibited at 2.4ppm -killed at 2.4ppm
- Candida albicans -killed 99.9% in 15minutes
- Bio-burden level -Aerobic count per 100ml, zero
- Yeast per 100ml zero
- Moulds per 100ml zero
- Bio burden level zero
- Sterility test (USP27) 14days -Complies
The Body Electric by Robert Becker
- Ionic silver has the proven ability to cause DNA to dedifferentiate or revert back to stem cells. Normally once DNA has expressed certain genes, it cannot return, so once a cell is skin, or a blood cell, it cannot morph to another cell type. Now, if you apply silver ions to a burn or an injury, the blood cells can convert to the necessary skin, nerve and other cell types as needed. Without it, they can only form scar tissue.
- So using a silver solution that has ionic content promotes healing without scarring
IDM Laboratory & Engineering Services cc. 2008
- Although Colloidal Silver and Bicosil has been shown to kill all pathogenic bacteria tested, it does not inhibit the proliferation of Lactic Acid Bacteria or any of the micro-organisms commonly known as Effective Microbes which include intestinal flora.
La-Bio Research cc (Pretoria) 2009
- Toxicity Study of Bicosil Ionised Silver(18 mg/litre)
- Acute, 14mg/kg
- 30 day test, 7mg and 14mg/kg/day
- 92 day test, 14mg/kg/day (+-1 litre per day for a 72kg person, equivalent of taking 92 litres over a 3 month period))
- No signs of toxicity or any other abnormality were found, clinically or clinico-pathologically, haematology and bio-chemistry. (Blood, liver, kidneys, hormones and electrolytes)
- No macro-pathology present.
- No colour change or deposits found.
World Health Organisation, 2003
Silver in drinking water:
- There have been no reports of argyria or other toxic effects resulting from the exposure of healthy persons to silver.
- On the basis of present epidemiological and pharmacokinetic knowledge, a total lifetime oral intake of about 10 g of silver can be considered as the human NOAEL’
- Silver may be used to maintain the bacteriological quality of drinking-water up to 0.1 mg/litre (a concentration that gives a total dose over 70 years of half the human NOAEL of 10 g), could then be tolerated without risk to health. (Assumes intake of two litres of silver-purified water per day).
(M Dudley)
How does it kill pathogens? Now we are getting into an area that is not nearly as clear cut as the above. That it does kill microbes, and disable viruses is a fact, but how it does it is still up to dispute. The following are some theories.
- Silver particles are an oxidizing catalyst, and as such oxidize pathogens killing them.
- Silver interferes with the microbe’s respiration (metabolism).
- Silver ties up or disables the sulphur in the microbe.
- Silver shorts out the electrostatic fields in the cell
Most of the above would not apply to viruses though. Instead the possibilities for disabling viruses are:
- Silver particles are an oxidizing catalyst and oxidize the virus killing it.
- Silver causes the virus DNA or RNA to revert back to being undifferentiated and without the proper expression for that host is disabled.
- Silver repairs the broken (segment of) DNA of a virus, making it complete, but no longer a functional virus which by design has an incomplete DNA.
The unique property of our Ionised Colloidal Silver is that on the one hand it is toxic to single celled pathogenic microbes (including bacteria, virus and fungus), and on the other hand it helps with the healing process of multicellular organisms (human tissue).
This is the reason it is so helpful in the treatment of burn wounds and cuts and scrapes.
Conclusion
Ionic Colloidal Silver is non-toxic, is efficacious against many microbes and is safe to use. It also promotes healing according to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease registry, U.S. Public Health Service.
According to the Toxicological Profile for Silver December 1990, silver has a NOAEL of 25. According to the World Health Organisation’s document (1996) silver has a NOAEL of 10 grams.
As the WHO document is more recent, we will use the more conservative figure of 10 grams. This means that you can drink 555 litres of Silver Lab 18 ppm Ionic Colloidal Silver spread over you entire life, or 8 litres per year for 70 years!
