Silver and Its Role in Health

The antimicrobial properties of silver have been known to cultures all around the world for many centuries. The Phonecians stored water and other liquids in silver coated bottles to discourage contamination by microbes (Wikipedia: Silver). Silver dollars used to be put into milk bottles to keep milk fresh, and water tanks of ships and airplanes that are "silvered" are able to render water potable for months. In 1884 it became a common practice to administer drops of aqueous silver nitrate to newborn's eyes to prevent the transmission of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from infected mothers to children during childbirth (Silvestry-Rodriguez et al., 2007).

Other Information

In 1893, the antibacterial effectiveness of various metals were noted and this property was named theoligodynamic effect. It was later found that out of all the metals with antimicrobial properties, silver has the most effective antibacterial action and the least toxicity to animal cells (Guggenbichler et al., 1999). Silver became commonly used in medical treatments, such as those of wounded soldiers in World War I, to deter microbial growth.

Once antibiotics were discovered, the use of silver as a bactericidal agent decreased. However, with the discovery of antibiotics came the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains such as CA-MRSA and HA-MRSA, the flesh-eating bacteria. Due to increasing antibiotic resistance, there has recently been a renewed interest in using silver as an antibacterial agent. The availability of new laboratory technologies such as radioactive isotopes and electron microscopy has greatly enabled us to investigate the antibacterial mechanism of silver in recent years (Fox and Modak, 1974; Feng et al., 2000).

The above is an extract from an article written by industry that discusses the many uses of silver in society including manufacturing, device design and medicine. Read the full article here: "The antibacterial effects of silver and its compounds." Salt Lake Metals, November 2008.