to want to buy socks without silver nano particles in them?

[entropygirl]

Apparently S'buries dont cater for people who dont want an unnecessary essentially untested new nano scale product in their socks....

It is rather alarming that nano-particles are so much more controlled in my work environment than in for instance sainsburys....

I am reminded of a previous product that was cheap fantastic and funky and went into everything from concrete through wallpaper to ironing boards before the health implications had been properly examined, and which people now have to pay $$$ to get removed from buildings by people in HAZMAT suits....

so nano covers 1 nanometer to up to 1 um. So yes there is a range and of course the label doesnt say.....its a bit like pentapeptides there are 3.2 million different pentapeptides that you could make...so which one is in your shampoo?

I digress.

But basically at the large end of the scale nano particles behave like solid metal. At the small end of the scale they are biologically active and can get through skin (in small numbers). I mean obviously they interact biologically coz they kill bacteria...

for reference asbestos causes trouble because the fibre diameter is less than 60nm.

The really interesting stuff happens at size

Dont worry about the piss taking.....Im sure people took the piss out of tree huggers who raised concerns over asbestos... :)

And to be fair they may turn out to be reasonably safe. But I think they are sneaking in through the loophole that says that silver is not a risky material in general, so you can put it in anything. But really silver-nano particles should be classified as a separate substance to bulk silver of ionic silver.

or ionic silver duh

Hello Procrastinating. Getting much done?

from wikipedia....Since the 1990s, "colloidal silver", a liquid suspension of microscopic silver particles, has been marketed as an alternative medicine, often claiming impressive "cure-all" qualities. The effectiveness of these products has never been scientifically proven, and in some jurisdictions, it is currently illegal to include such claims in product advertisements.[14] Medical authorities and publications advise against the ingestion of colloidal silver preparations, because of their lack of proven effectiveness and because of the risk of adverse side effects, such as argyria.[2][15][16][17] Historically, colloidal silver was also used as an internal medication to treat a variety of diseases. Their use was largely discontinued in the 1940s, due to the development of safe and effective modern antibiotics and concern about adverse side effects.[17][18]

I dont have much to add specifically as it is nano-silver that I know more about. Colloidal cover and even greater range of size than nano....

Poison in socks!?!? THEY must be trying to kill us from the feet up.

Eh?

Silver has been used as an antiseptic for eons. Is this wildy different?

Im in the 'just want plain old cotton clothes' gang too.

I hate teflon in school uniforms. Now silver in socks. Drives me completely batty and I have totally turned into my Grandmother.

I even have a weird stash of obscure catalogues full of old lady underwear which I get excited about instead.

This is GCSE Chemistry ( AQA paper 2 to be precise).
People cannot be sure exactly the long term effects of nano particles, which are small enough to be biologically active. However I would have thought the ones in socks would be tightly bonded to the fibres, otherwise the anti-bacterial properties would wash away quickly (and they would be just as smelly). Silver is toxic, if you eat enough, and quite poisonous to plants usually.

I have no idea what you are on about.

I was conned into buying DD some colloidal silver when she had chicken pox (to spray on the spots. It did fuck all.

I'm sorry but may I correct you on one point a quantum dot IS a nanoparticle but nanoparticles is a generic term for something typically less than 100nm in size (generally) and are NOT quantum dots. Sorry... A quantum dot is a semiconductor.

Petrean, I understood about four words in you post.

I just wanted to point out that quantum dots are semiconductors and small (nanometre small) and therefore nanoparticles. But nanoparticles is a generic term and not all nanoparticles are quantum dots.

I'm not walking around with quantum dots in my socks.

Is that any better?

I can see you've all switched off ... Have I bored you)

hmm I thought the term quantum dot referred to anything which behaved as a 1D potential well. Surely that applies to metal nano particles?

or on the other hand maybe metals have too many 'free' electrons...

stranded from wikipedia 'Exposure to silver nanoparticles has been associated with "inflammatory, oxidative, genotoxic, and cytotoxic consequences"; the silver particulates primarily accumulate in the liver.[4] but have also been shown to be toxic in other organs including the brain.[5]'

and im sure you know wikipedia always speaks the truth....I had a little look at primary research in the area of silver nanopartlicles and health and the last few papers that have been published have all found links to various conditions you would rather not have.

I mean fair enough if there is a reason to come into contact with them...but wearing socks two days in a row does not qualify.

Aaahhh so we're now beginning to cone the term nanoparticles down. Nope not metal nanoparticles... Semiconductor nanoparticles.

Quantum dots are being used to determine if indeed nanoparticles can penetrate the skin, because quantum dots can fluoresce (under certain conditions) and therefore you can detect them, other nanoparticles are too hard to detect/track.

Incidentally I can see you are genuinely worried about your socks and potentially quite rightly (who knows, until toxicity can be established). But do you where sunscreen at all, I suppose in the case if sunscreen you can outweigh the risk with the benefit, with your socks the only benefit is less smelly feet.

Yah the sunscreen thing is a pretty horrific eye opener too....I personally am a red head and so not wearing sunscreen is almost certainly worse then wearing it (particularly when I visited Australia last year).

People have too much blind faith in the system...in this case silver seems to get through because it has always been used in medicine.