By Walter Sorochan
The two biggest controversies deal with deliberate misinformation and fear due to lack of reliable information. Both of these controversies flourish when readers lack good and honest information.
The internet market selling silver products is filled with warped facts, outright lies and deception about benefits of silver! [ 113. Grier Tom ] On the other hand, good information is presented although not all of it is relevant, and may not be factual and scientific. "One needs to shift the wheat from the shaft" in order to find good information about silver.
One needs to be suspicious of most web-site companies that provide information about silver products on the one hand and then also advertise to sell their silver product on the same page. A possible vested interest can taint the validity of the information provided! Can the reader trust such a web-site?
Fear of unknown: Many persons fear that ingesting silver will cause their skin to turn blue. Such fear is based on misinformation and use of antiquainted silver products; causing many persons to reject any use of silver medications.
Shattering the medical belief system: Many persons do not belief in nutritional supplements and many aspects of unconventional medicine. Instead they believe in the medical system as the only way to stay healthy. Their belief system cannot openly consider the possibility that there may be a better alternative to antibiotics and control of pathogens by using colloidal silver instead of antibiotics to fight pathogens.
Lack of Research: A major contribution to the controversy over silver have been flawed research projects. The "apparent" resistance of microbes to silver was mistakenly noted by many who failed to notice and identify: a) sufficient [ oligodynamic ] silver particle concentrations, b) effective percentages of charged particles, c) inadequate protocols and/or d) improper procedures. [ 7. Clinical use of silver products ] [ 47. Schauss ] Another related controversy are claims that colloidal silver kills pathogens in test tubes but may not do so when ingested. We need more independent research about silver products.
Lack of updating data: Companies manufacturing silver products are adding to the confusion about silver products when they list several several products to be the same or similar. Case in point: Biotic silver, silver sol, ASAP, and colloidal silver nano-particle water sol solution. Assumingly, it should be noted that this list of terms probably identifies silver products of different time periods! But the reader does not know all this background information and this adds to the confusion about ABL products. Colloidal silver products present a greater controversy in product labeling.
Additional confusion surfaces from when marketing firms describe the importance of using special unique technology to make safe and bio-available silver products.
Deceptive advertising [ 81. Partial List of Ionic Products ] is probably the biggest fraudulent scam. Such advertizing is adding to consumer misinformation about side-effects from the use of wrong silver products. For example: "Both issues of misinformation and selling bogus silver products contribute to the major problem that exists today with merchants selling silver products. The majority of these on the internet often make bogus claims about their products. Product labeling of ingredients is poorly displayed or lacking. For example "Silver concentration is most frequently reported as total silver measured in milligrams per liter (mg/L), which is numerically the same as parts-per-million (ppm)." [ 80. CSL: Silver colloids product reports ] Total silver consists of silver in two distinct forms: silver particles and silver ions. Such disclosure does not tell the consumer how many colloidal particles there are in relationship to unwanted silver ions in the solution. [ 97. Key Francis S. and George Maass ] Such web-site postings provide incorrect, confusing and false information, thus deceiving their prospective customers. The advertized silver products that consumers buy may be tainted and unsafe to use. [ 96. Making lightwatcher's CS - snakeoil salesmen ] [ 100. Bogus studies ] | [ 97. Key Francis S. and George Maass ]
All one has to do is view a dozen or so web-sites selling silver products on the internet. Observe the information displayed and note the similarity of the content. The product information is scanty and very incomplete for those persons wishing to make intelligent decisions about purchasing silver products. There is a great need to standardize such information!
SIZE: Most of us understand size when we can see objects and compare them to each other. An elephant is bigger than a dog which is bigger than a mouse. But such size comparison becomes more difficult to understand when we try to image a bacteria as compared to a virus as compared to an ion or nano-particle. We are now trying to perceive the size of a particle that is one ten-thousand the size of a human hair. Such a miniscule sized particle, referred to as "nano" is one - thousand smaller than a virus. Trying to imagine something that small adds to the confusion about colloidal silver. For more info about size: please visit nano-particles
Home Generators: A continuing controversy appears to exist as to whether home made electrolysis kits really produce quality silver products. Likewise, many home silver generator products sold via the internet make claims that a potential customer has no way to know whether such claims are valid or scams. [ 95. making medicinal silver ] Furthermore, home generators are NOT capable of making consistent true silver products; instead the majority of these generators make ionic silver and silver proteins. [ 10. Colloidal silver: ] Home generated procedures have difficulty controlling a desirable temperature, purity of silver poles and a constant low electrical current that in turn, produces a quality, high concentration of silver nano-particles.
Copy Cats: A lot of confusion occurs when those selling silver products
try to provide information about products they are selling by simply copying the
information from another web-site doing the same thing. The copy is rewritten
but the content is essentially unchanged. More often than not, it is "Like
monkey see, like monkey do!" Lack of real understanding of how silver works is
continued. Ignorance that is perpetuated via 'copy cat' adds to the lack of
credibility of the information.