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The Blue Guy Makes Me Think
Apart from being amazed that I’d actually seen a blue person (he looked shockingly blue in person--like the coldest person you've ever seen), I also got to thinking about the silver-infused bike shorts I’d nearly bought online the night before. These little guys are marketed as massaging anti-cellulite tights, so I considered them for a moment, until I saw the silver bit, which smelled of nano-engineering. Lots of clothes are nano-engineered with silver, which lends anti-funk microbial properties to socks and all sorts of other athletic gear. Nobody can tell you for sure whether that's safe, and the particles they're using are so tiny that they can penetrate any physical barrier in your body--even your blood-brain barrier, should happen to end up there. (For more on that, check out this piece on the potential health effects of nano silver by Robin Henig in the Fall 2007 issue of OnEarth) I decided I don’t need the cellulite shorts, and I certainly don’t need to worry about what is seeping from my shorts, through my butt cheeks, and into my brain. I think I’ll pass, just in case. Thanks for the reality check, Blue Guy.
I reread this article online (I'd read it last year in print) and tried googling nanosilver. The top (presumably paid) link was this: http://www.nano-silver.com/ . The last line of the splashpage of this website is: "For optimum function of body immunity, everyone needs Nano-Silver circulating in their bloodstream." As a biologist, I find this statement extremely disturbing. With the relatively poor science literacy we have in the US, it is easy for citizens with desperate or even merely annoying health problems to become prey to these kinds of patent medicine style claims.
There will be a 4-day consultation meeting of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act Scientific Advisory Panel (FIFRA SAP) to consider and review a set of scientific issues related to the assessment of hazard and exposure associated with nanosilver and other nanometal pesticide products.
DATES: The consultation meeting will be held on November 3 - 6, 2009, from approximately 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The consultation meeting will be held at the Environmental Protection Agency, Conference Center, Lobby Level, One Potomac Yard (South Bldg.), 2777 S. Crystal Dr., Arlington, VA 22202.
Comments: The Agency encourages that written comments be submitted by October 20, 2009 and requests for oral comments be submitted by October 27, 2009. Submit your comments, identified by docket identification (ID) number EPA-HQ-OPP-2009-0683, by one of the following methods:
• Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the on-line instructions for submitting comments.
• Mail: Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) Regulatory Public Docket (7502P), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Joseph E. Bailey, DFO, Office of Science Coordination and Policy (7201M), Environmental Protection Agency, 1200 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20460-0001; telephone number: (202) 564-2045; fax number: (202) 564-8382; e-mail address: bailey.joseph@epa.gov.
EPA source: http://www.FederalRegister.com