We have all heard people say that nanotechnology is the future of our generation and that future has already started to fulfill itself with silver nanoparticles. Silver has been known to have antimicrobial properties since the ancient Phoenicians started using silver vessels to store their drinking water. According to the article “Silver Tongues,” silver nanoparticles may become the next potent bactericide. The nanoparticles may be used in future clothes, soap, and even chopsticks in order to prevent germs. However, silver in large quantities can prove harmful and toxic; therefore, more research is underway on the silver and nanoparticles themselves, which can react in many different, possibly unsafe, ways. The germ killing ability of silver to be antimicrobial is obtained from its slow release of ions; when silver is produced in nanometers it sheds more ions and becomes more potent. The EPA (environmental protection agency) is up in arms about the large number of silver nanoparticle products like the “silver wash” a new washing machine that will clean clothes by releasing hundreds of billions of silver nanoparticles. EPA is worried about the environmental safety because the silver nanoparticles have no been tested extensively; they want the new products to be labeled as pesticides and regulated. A risk of silver nanoparticles is that the particles are so tiny that they may go into an organism and release their ions inside of it; silver’s ability to do this is the reason it is so affective, yet if silver starts releasing its ions into humans scientists are not sure how tolerant we would be to the new product. However, taking the risks into count, many scientists believe that there is great potential for the new silver nanoparticles to be used in medical equipment or in clothes to make them sterile; the EPA is still very determined to make the silver known as a pesticide to regulate the usage until further tests are developed.
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