Toxicity of colloidal silver products and their marketing claims in Finland

Veera Leino; Riikka Airaksinen; Matti Viluksela; Kirsi Vähäkangas

doi:10.1016/j.toxrep.2020.12.021

Toxicity of colloidal silver products and their marketing claims in Finland

Toxicol Rep. 2020 Dec 26:8:106-113. doi: 10.1016/j.toxrep.2020.12.021. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Veera Leino¹, Riikka Airaksinen², Matti Viluksela^{1

2}, Kirsi Vähäkangas¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Pharmacy/Toxicology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland.
² Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Kuopio, Finland.

Abstract

Aims: The aim was to investigate the marketing practices, beliefs and health claims regarding the use of colloidal silver in Finland. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are potentially toxic due to their small size and Ag⁺-release capabilities, and the use of colloidal silver products containing AgNPs can cause a wide variety of adverse effects such as argyria.

Methods: Contents of three company websites selling colloidal silver were reviewed, and the claims used in the marketing of colloidal silver were compared to the scientific information about silver. In Facebook posts and discussion about colloidal silver were analyzed.

Results: In Finland, the marketing of colloidal silver products on websites selling the products did not follow the regulations of authorities; several scientifically unfounded claims about the efficacy and medical use of colloidal silver were found. After the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle) documentary and an intervention by authorities, contents of the websites were changed, but still questionable information and misleading claims could be found. In the analyzed Facebook groups attitudes towards medical use of colloidal silver were uncritically positive, internal use was highly promoted and the restrictions of use were considered unjustified.

Conclusions: The use of quackery products such as colloidal silver can be dangerous, and their use and marketing should be controlled and restricted.

Keywords: APTT, active partial thromboplastin time; ATP, adenosine triphosphate; AgNPs, silver nanoparticles; Colloidal silver; Evira, the finnish food safety authority; Fimea, the finnish medicines agency; LDH, lactate dehydrogenase; NOAEL, no observable adverse effect level; Pseudo-medicine; Quackery; ROS, reactive oxygen species; RfD, reference dose; Silver nanoparticles; Social media; THL, the finnish institute for health and welfare; Tukes, the finnish safety and chemicals agency; U.S. EPA, the environmental protection agency of the USA; WHO, the World Health Organization; Web-based advertising; Yle, the finnish broadcasting company.