A Household Paint That Kills Germs

Silver is also a heavy metal that is hazardous to your health as well. Putting it in small particles and exposing you over a long period will be dangerous to your health and may cause cancer.

See http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npg/npgd0557.html

and http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/rtecs/vw3567e0.html

"Silver is a heavy metal that is hazardous to your health as well." Then I guess I should tell my 95 year old grandmother, who has been eating off silverware for her whole life, that she is in danger. I guess the fact that she is never sick, never catches colds, must be because she is dying of silver poisoning. Geez who'd have thought that a material, long know for it's antibacterial properties is dangerous to your health. I have heard about people that drink very high concentrations of colloidal silver developing a condition called argyria, a condition that causes a bluish grey skin coloration. I do not think that there is any connection between silver and cancer. The processes used to refine silver, leaching, super hazardous chemicals, etc, could cause cancer, but not silver itself. People have been drinking and eating from silver for thousands of years. Pioneers used to put silver dollars in their milk to slow down spoilage when refridgeration wasn't available. Companies now combine nano fibers of silver into cloth that is used in socks and undergarments to combat odors. Wouldn't companies like Reed and Barton, Tiffany, and Gorham been in trouble for poisoning the rich and famous by now if silver was indeed harmful? I'll take my chances and continue to eat and drink using silver utensils. Harmful? Hogwash!

The problem is not the solid form but small particles that can be absorbed and react with other chemicals. An occasional exposure is not as dangerous as constant exposure.

They thought lead was safe when they first starting to use it also.

If it kills bacteria, like most disinfectants, it will also kill living tissue. Too much exposure is definitely unhealthy.

I am not saying it is extremely dangerous as you have already commented, however, to put it in building materials such as a countertops, and also to make it into fine particles; would change an occasional exposure to a mild toxin to a constant exposure at elevated levels of exposure.

The one constant in Hazardous Material is that the quantity or 'dosage' of exposure is directly related to the level of hazard.

Too much of anything is hazardous to your health.

In many places in Europe colloidal silver is used in swimming pool water to disinfect the water rather than chlorine. I suspect that when all is said and done, someone form the NIH will review the statistics used by the CDC and determine that they have over blown the danger, just as they did on the data for arsenic in water that was analyzed by the WHO. In that case the NIH determined that rather than a 10 ppb As max for prevention of cancer, the limit should have been set at 150 ppb. There are one H--- of a lot of people using statistics to prove their position who dont really understand statistics or what they mean...

Just like selling the world to eliminate DDT as a pesticide. Because it is now unavailable malaria in many 3rd world countries is on the rise.

"who don't really understand statistics "

85% of statistics are made up on the spot. Oops I just did it!

Statistics are almost always used in a way that does not represent the collection method, or goals, but instead for the goal of the speaker.

Now that is an interesting product.

In years to come, no doubt, folks will be scraping down the walls, to recover that valuable silver.

Kind Regards....

Won't be too long before paint stores get burgled for the anti-bacterial paint.

Don't give them any ideas they will be stealing the drums of ship hull paint for copper.

Brad

This is not a good idea. The human body needs to "learn" from an early age about bacteria, some people have no resistance now because of mothers killing all bacteria in the house with sprays and other such things, Doctors are sure that some lung diseases/disorders are caused by being "OVERCLEAN". what will happen over the next 100 years if this continues......

Plus, getting rid of a painted object may be regarded as needing special (costly) ways to get rid of it at the end of its life......

Not for me....

actually, keeping in mind the context of the other comments, I would be more interested in researching the availability of such a product for use in the medical environment, than using it in home design. Having designed my share of medical facilities, the users of such facilities are constantly considering methods of keeping surfaces "clean". Anything that makes that job easier would be worth its weight in... well, silver.