Dear Mary, You write: > I have a question for you, I am going back to using my sterling > silver for tableware, question is sterling silver ok??
I've never thought much about it, in the context of what we know about therepeutic silver. >From the Sterling Silver page on Wikipedia: "Sterling silver is an alloy of silver containing 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals, usually copper. The minimum millesimal fineness is 925. "Fine silver (99.9% pure) is generally too soft for producing large functional objects, and in Sterling the silver is usually alloyed with copper to give strength whilst preserving the ductility of the silver and a high precious metal content. Other metals can replace the copper, usually with the intent to improve various properties of the basic sterling alloy such as reducing casting porosity, eliminating firescale, and increasing resistance to tarnish. These replacement metals include germanium, zinc, platinum as well as a variety of other additives including silicon and boron. A number of alloys claiming firescale and/or tarnish resistance have appeared in recent years sparking heavy competition between the various manufacturers and their different formulations. No one alloy has emerged as an industry leader or standard and ongoing alloy development is a very active area." All the elements listed here are relatively benign, as far as I know, and some are beneficial. What might be included in "as well as a variety of other additives" besides silicon and boron is not described, of course. My guess is that it's not as bad as drinking water out of lead pipes. <wry grin> You'd ingest more iron from iron cookware and nickel from stainless than anything coming off the silver, all of which will be reduced in concentration by dilution, probably to levels comparable to minor nutrients and trace minerals. I'd do it. We have some silver and have used it occasionally. For a time my mom used her silver every day when I was a teenager, and I turned out okay. That's my guess, anyway. Be well, Mike D. [Mike Devour, Citizen, Patriot, Libertarian] [[email protected] ] [Speaking only for myself... ] -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] The Silver List and Off Topic List archives are currently down... List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
