Is there a health risk to using silverware daily?

[KurtNYC]

I'm researching this and have found only bits and pieces -- no Harvard studies or anything.

It does look like using silverware means that you are ingesting silver. Silver is tumorgenic. The recent publicity about colloidal silver and the guy who turned himself blue permanently has me curious about the answer. I don't want tumors and I don't wanted to become known as "Papa Smurf" but people have used silverware for centuries so I have to think the risk isn't all that great.

I found this from the National Institute of Health:

Other side effects from using colloidal silver products may include neurologic problems (such as seizures), kidney damage, stomach distress, headaches, fatigue, and skin irritation. Colloidal silver may interfere with the body's absorption of the following drugs: penacillamine, quinolones, tetracyclines, and thyroxine.


http://nccam.nih.gov/health/alerts/silver/index.htm

[lisa58]

1. How many people use real silver every day...

...stainless steel in my house.

[KurtNYC]

5. true - and that isn't what I am worried about

my spouse has real silver silverware and wants to use it daily -- something I have never done. If I refuse to use it I want to do so for a good reason.

I should perhaps confess that I am a person who avoids all the stuff which has been shown to produce cancer, etc. I use no electric blankets, or non-stick cookware.

[GoneOffShore]

15. Use the silver

There is no point in not using it. Hell, I'm still using my lead crystal glasses after 30 years. No ill effects.



If she wanted you to eat off of pewter plates then I'd start to worry. Or serving quicksilver cocktails.

[liberal N proud]

7. The bu$h's probably use real silver

Might explain the moron in chief's behavior. Grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth and it effected him neurologically

[Virginia Dare]

8. Supposedly the lead used in serving ware years ago..

caused a lot of upper crust people to go mad. Come to think of it, all these dishes and crap we're buying from China probably have lead in them. Everything old is new again.

[shraby]

2. The majority of people use stainless steel

"silverware" now, so I doubt it would be an issue.

[Warpy]

3. My silver sits in its box

except for the silver demitasse spoon some ancestor pinched from the Hotel Storchen in Zurich (the family thieves had class) that I use to eat my yogurt.

My silver only reminds me of very tense holiday dinners so my every day stuff is mismatched stainless or chopsticks.

[cosmik debris]

4. Metallic elemental silver is NOT the same as colloidal silver

And the amount of silver absorbed from using a silver fork or spoon is minuscule. It is relatively inert and passes through the system easily.

Colloidal silver is a quack cure sold by people who want to make a fast buck.

[KurtNYC]

6. thanks

isn't colloidal silver the same element, silver, but in liquid/suspension form? If so, isn't the real difference then the dosage?

[cosmik debris]

11. The colloidal suspension is intended to make the silver.

more easily absorbed by the intestines. Elemental silver is unlikely to be absorbed without suspending in as a colloid.

Using colloidal silver gives you a dose MANY ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE LARGER than you could possibly get from using silver flatware. What's more, that dose is designed to be absorbed, where silver in flatware is almost inert and almost impossible to absorb.

There is really no rational comparison between taking colloidal silver and eating with silver flatware. But then you don't have to be rational if you don't want to.

[lazer47]

9. After a fifth of good Merlot, you have to be careful from

sticking yourself in the eye with the fork

[cosmik debris]

12. It's been a long time since Merlot came in fifths!

I only buy it in 750 ml bottles and if I drink the whole thing, I just stick to spoons or finger food. :)

[lazer47]

13. I never take time to read the lables so I just guessed how much was in it

[cosmik debris]

14. I didn't know either until I tried to cross into Canada

There is a limit on how much wine you can take into the country. I think it is two liters. They let me in with 3 750ml bottles and I had to promise not to do it again.

[AndyA]

10. As already mentioned, most eating utensils are stainless steel, so

no silver to be concerned with.

I hadn't heard about electric blankets causing cancer, though.

I do know that non-stick cookware can be an issue if the non-stick finish is peeling off or scratched, but as long as it's hand washed (dishwashing detergents break the non-stick surface down), and plastic utensils are used, it shouldn't be an issue, although I would imagine some of the cheaper Chinese imported cookware might be an issue.

I'm beginning to think that LIFE causes cancer. No matter what you do, you're at risk... :shrug:

[GoneOffShore]

16. Can I nominate your OP for a DUZY?

Please?

[LeftishBrit]

17. Naoh, we use it every day at dear old Buckin'ham Palace!

[dropkickpa]

18. Ack!

I use spoons, I'm so fucked!

Oh wait, I use spoons that can hold stuff, not the kind shaped like a puddle.

Chemistry is my friend!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

19. the guy who turned blue wasn't taking properly made colloidal silver.

He was ingesting particles much larger than colloids. He also put salt into the water thus making silver chloride, which is wrong.


http://www.silvermedicine.org/argyria.html

Quote from above webpage:
What the AP Press release doesn't tell the general public, is that Stan brewed his home-made colloidal silver by using tap water and salt with a battery colloidal silver generator, and let his generator run for an hour, which not only produced an abundance of silver chloride, but also produced larger particles of silver due to agglomeration caused by a runaway electrolysis reaction. He drank eight ounces or more of this product containing an extremely high concentration of silver daily for at least two years."

[trotsky]

20. Sorry, even people who have only taken "real" colloidal silver...

have ended up with argyria. Some folks are more susceptible to it, too.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

21. Silver tarnish is antibacterial.

They sell bandaids with silver tarnish (Silver oxide) in them.

many silver compounds are antibacterial. So if you're eating with silverplate or sterling silver, you are probably taking in tiny amounts of something good for you.