Sound technical content, curated with aloha by
Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Pine Beach, NJ
The authoritative public forum
for Metal Finishing since 1989
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'Silver Poisoning' a Real Threat
2007
I read your thread about mercury poisoning and decided to ask a question about which I am curious--how often do people on this site or in this industry hear of heavy metal poisoning from silver? I know dentists try to describe their amalgams as 'silver fillings' thinking that means something pure or harmless. It doesn't. I believe that recently I have become allergic (as in dermatitis) to light. After a lot of research on the web, I have come to a tentative conclusion that over the course of my life I have ingested by various and sundry means enough silver to make me photosensitive (perhaps in combination with other metals such as mercury.) I have read that silver ions once inside the body combine with sodium to make silver chloride, the key photosensitizing agent in photography.
My family used silver flatware as I grew up. Water can be purified with silver ions, and this is the type of water I drank every day for six months prior to my first allergic attack this summer, which was an absolute nightmare out of science fiction. It took 3 or 4 days to manifest on me, after I received a mild sunburn on my shoulders. Also the glands in the side of my neck (where the sunlight struck me when driving in the car) turned bright red like a prairie chicken in heat and swelled like the mumps. That's not all--it itched like you didn't want to see another tomorrow--and then it began spreading noticeably. My reaction was actually polymorphic, in that exposed areas on my ankle and foot behaved a bit differently. They first turned red in specific areas and I developed a lot of swelling. Then variably sized water blisters cropped up--and when I broke them, most of the swelling from that area left as well (but swelling in adjacent areas remained.)
I did get this under control. A doctor prescribed a week's supply of the corticosteroid prednizone, which helped immensely--but then the medicine is gone, and of course it can't prevent it from happening again. I'm just wondering if there are other people out there suffering from photosensitivity due to 'silver poisoning' and what their experiences taught them. Surely, I'm not the only one who has experienced this.
artist-hobbyist - Omaha, Nebraska, USA
2007
I've never heard of anyone in the silver plating business get silver poisoning, Carol. But you should do your research in books and journals at a library, rather than on the web. There is so much garbage out there that you'll never be able to sort the learned studies from the apocryphal nonsense. Please remember that any crackpot can call himself ".org".
But, yes, there is such a thing as silver poisoning or argyria. You might enjoy
"The Five People You Meet in Heaven".
since one of the characters has silver poisoning. But, in addition to the fact that experts feel that it is impossible to get silver poisoning from silverware (I can't speak for 'silver ion purification', whatever that is), it doesn't sound to me like you have so much as a single symptom in common with the victims of silver poisoning :-)
Your doctor can treat you for argyria and has chosen not to, probably because s/he doesn't think you have it. Please trust your doctor or find another doctor who you can trust, rather than self-diagnosing your symptoms as attributable to such an unlikely cause. Good luck.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
The only examples of silver poisoning I have come across is the inhalation of silver when people have been spraying silver salts in the so-called "silver mirror" process. This can result in silver in their lungs and subsequent respiratory problems that are nor reversible. The other examples of silver poisoning are if your either a vampire or have been shot by the Lone Ranger.
Trevor Crichton
R&D practical scientist
Chesham, Bucks, UK
2007
Carol, your symptoms make it sound like what you had was a severe sunburn(not a mild one)and not silver poisoning. That was the straight statement, here comes the jest, you also need silver to kill a werewolf Trevor :-)
Sheldon Taylor
supply chain electronics
Wake Forest, North Carolina
2007
July 15, 2008
To the 2 previous posts:
Thanks guys, for your input--but no, it wasn't THAT severe a sunburn. I have had sunburn many times in my life and never had this sort of reaction before. The red swelling in my neck glands did not even show up until a whole week after my exposure. Only the prednizone
(corticosteroid) took away my symptoms. That first doctor was only a weekend express care clinic--not a regular one you can see by appt. Afterward, I did have minor recurrences--each time after putting myself outdoors in daylight for more than 3 hours accumulated time. If I stay inside out of the sunlight, it doesn't recur; if I go out too many times, even for short errands, I break out again, usually on wrist and forearm. A dermatologist thought I might have Vitiligo, but she wasn't sure enough about it to say it out loud--sort of said it under her breath. Vitiligo is a photosensitive disease, but I don't think that is necessarily the right one for me, as there are 40 or more types of photosensitivity. At any rate, I followed the dermatologists advice and avoid all herbs, spices, fragranced products, dyes, etc. And I haven't had another severe reaction, but have had it in my mouth, too. Not fun. It is now almost a year later, and I still have this strange skin condition.
- Omaha, Nebraska, USA
As to your question about why you had there reactions you did have in 07. Well back in 93 I had the same reactions plus swollen lips and joints. All the reaction were related to a time I was going thru alot of stress and then broke a leg and went on antibiotics. My first reaction ever from anything came a couple hours after eating eggplant. As you stated The sun beating down on me while driving would flare the rashes/hive up for about a month. Things cleared up in time but I was still getting that itchy feeling. Then a couple years later I had to do antibiotics again and this was the last straw. For 8 years I fought food allergies. Nothing could get me back to pre 93. Not until I saw a holistic doctor. Basically it came down to a candida issue. Yeast imbalance. Getting this under control only took a month once he suggested what coarse of action to take. Once I did his recommendations a couple weeks later I did probiotics in about 6 times the dose recommended on the bottle for a few weeks. Then tapered off. As of third day of starting the probiotic I started to eat all the things that would set me off. I've had no reactions as of 11/98. Anyways as to a direction to look to your question I would look into candadiasis as the culprit and if you know of anyone that has developed any allergies or anyone that has repeated antibiotics use, especially children for stuff like ear infections and such I would advise them also just to be safe., Good luck. Also its possible that your ok now but next time you have to have antibiotics I would do colliodal silver instead. I just had a tootache that fought for 6 months. Dentist could not get rid of the problem. he recommended pulling the tooth and getting implants at a cost of $6000 approx. I did the colliodal silver. 48 hours later the throbbing was gone. 1 week later I could eat a steak when before I couldn't eat jello on that side.
Skip Bouvette- Arroyo Grande, California
September 28, 2008
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