Will silver jewellery harm my health?

Laura - I would've thought mainly, silver jewellery would be fine first of all because silver is fairly unreactive and secondly, we've been wearing silver jewellery for many, many years. You can find it in archaeological sites all over the place. I think there would be potentially a little bit of a worry if there's something that he's allergic to in the alloy because no silver is 100% pure usually when you're wearing silver jewellery. So, that can be a problem. Some of the silver atoms will eventually - if you're wearing a ring, some of those atoms will move into your skin, but I wouldn't have thought there would be any kind of problem.

Chris - There was a gentleman, I think we discussed him here on the programme previously, who thought that silver was a good thing because it kills microorganisms and that kind of thing. So, he was drinking a solution of silver salts every day and he unfortunately went blue. This is a condition called argyria and he looks like a smurf honestly, bright blue and it's permanent because the silver goes into the skin and then reacts with sunlight, and you get this bluey grey gun metal sort of coloration. I've seen him on television. He's absolutely blue.

Laura - He is absolutely blue. What's even more astonishing is that he still drinks the colloidal silver because he still believes that it gives him these health giving properties. But I think there's a big, big difference between drinking what we call colloidal silver which is a large amount of it getting into your skin where it reacts and a couple of atoms occasionally getting into your skin. I mean, you eat probably more than you'll absorb from your jewellery.