Nanoparticles Shown to be Dangerous, Block Nutrient Absorption
According to the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), over 1,300 manufacturer nanotechnology-enabled products are in the global commercial marketplace. Nanoparticles can be found in car batteries, appliances, aluminum foil, non-stick cookware, and is especially present in health and fitness items. PEN Director David Rejeski states:
"The use of nanotechnology in consumer products continues to grow on a rapid and consistent basis...when we launched the inventory in March 2006 it contained 212 products. If the current trend continues, the number of products could reach 3,400 by 2020."Nanotechnology is much like organism-based biotechnology, where even supporters of the technologies know there needs to be more long term testing to determine safety. Genetically modified foods have already been shown to cause numerous health and environmental complications, but they continue to be pushed. Similarly, nanotechnology is believed by some to be the 'next industrial revolution', but like genetically modified foods, it has never been proven totally safe for use or consumption.
A recent study published in the journal Nature titled "Oral exposure to polystyrene nanoparticles affects iron absorption" examined chickens fed a diet which included polystyrene nanoparticles. Researchers found that intestinal changes affecting iron absorption occurred due to the polystyrene nanoparticles. They also expect to see an alteration in absorption of calcium, copper, zinc, and vitamins A, D, E, and K.
Another study conducted in 2004 found that nanoparticles cause brain damage in fish and other aquatic species.
In addition, Oxford University and Montreal University in 1997 linked titanium dioxide and zinc oxide nanoparticles in sunscreen to free radical and DNA damage. But still, even in 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined to put any warning labels on sunscreens that contain nanomaterials.
Scientists worry about the place nanoparticles have in our society. These particles have fundamentally different physical, biological, and chemical properties than their larger counterparts, and continue to be shown as a danger to human health.
In case anyone is wondering about the thousands of claims made by the hundreds of manufacturers of "colloidal silver" products, a few things need to be straightened out:
1) with the exception of only two companies -- no one -- produces true colloidal silver wherein the mass of silver particles in suspension vs. that of silver IONS in solution (and these are greatly different states) is at least 50% silver particles in suspension. This is an important point because it is child's play to make a solution of silver ions and a technological tour de force to make a true, picoparticle silver colloid.
In fact only one company on Earth produces such a product, it is called "MesoSilver" and features silver particles that are on average 650 pm in diameter, approximately twice the size of a single carbon atom and a little over twice the diameter of a single silver atom. These are particles thousands of times smaller than cells, in fact they are so small they'll slip into, and out of, the DNA helix.
2) the silver cations (single atoms missing one or more electrons) that comprise 75 to 98% of the silver mass in a typical so-called "silver colloid" have a half-life in the human blood stream of approx 7.5 minutes, during which time approximately one half of the available +ve Ag ions actively bond with -ve ions (anions) such as chloride to form compounds like silver chloride, which has no known bactericidal effects.
As something of an aside; after 8 half-lives have passed (8 x 7.5 min = 60 min) the amount of ionic silver remaining in solution is reduced to 1/2^8 or 1/256th or .4% of its original value. So, while ionic silver might exhibit some bactericidal effects, it doesn't last long in the human bloodstream whereas true silver particles stay as long as it takes the body's natural processes to flush them them thru, typically some few days.
NOTE that because these particles are so tiny they neither hang up nor accrete in tissues and therefore cannot and never have caused the much ballyhoo-ed "Blue Man" condition.
In a recent "Lethal Dosage Level" study the single-dose oral toxicity of MesoSilver was evaluated in Sprague Dawley rats. A limit was performed in which five male and five female rats received an oral adminitstartion of five grams/kg body weight. Following dosing, the rats were observed daily and weighed weekly. A gross necroscopy examination was performed on all animals at the time of scheduled eusthanasia (day 14).
No mortality and no clinical abnormalities occured during the study. Body weight gain was noted for all animals during the test period No significant gross internal finding was observed at necroscopy on study day 14
Under the conditions of this test, the acute oral level of MesoSilver was determined to be greater than 5gm/kg in the rat.