​As of late, many doctors, scientists, and now the media, have been claiming that silver is a problem because it is a heavy metal, and as such can poison the body. The problem is not with the silver but with the misinformation and inaccurate knowledge being spread by the people speaking about silver. The real answer is that silver is not toxic when used at reasonable levels and quantities. Any substance, even water, in excessive amounts can be fatal. Toxic nephropathy or heavy metal poisoning is defined as, “Any functional or morphologic change in the kidney produced by an ingested, injected, inhaled, or absorbed drug, chemical, or biological agent.” The MERCK Manual is sometimes referred to as the “Scientific Bible of Diagnosis and Therapy” by many scientists and doctors. Silver is not listed in the manual for causing heavy metal poisoning, because it does not cause it. (See MERCK manual (17th Edition, Pg 1880, table 226-1, third item listed, for the full list of heavy metals that cause toxic nephropathy)). ​

   In a peer-reviewed paper “Ultradilute Ag-Aquasols with extraordinary bactericidal properties: the role of the system Ag-O-H2O.” (Materials Research Innovations, vol. 11, no. 1, (2007) pages 3-18) on the subject of the safety of consuming metallic silver, the paper states (page 1, first paragraph of the introduction), “A recent paper by Das et al. Provides the remarkable datum that some 275,000 kg [(605,000 pounds)] of edible metallic silver foil are consumed every year (in food) in India. No known adverse health effects have ever been recorded. This epidemiological evidence that silver as a metal is not toxic in any way needs no further comment. Further support for the obvious safety of consuming metallic silver (Ag0) is in the worldwide consumption of (so called) silver colloids, often made at home in primitive electrochemical cells by probably some millions of citizens, again with no ill effects.”