DISCLAIMER

The Committee for the Responsible Use of Silver in Health ("CRUSH") wishes to share the following regarding this site and its purposes.

Use of silver internally by humans has not as yet been proven to kill germs inside the human body

This site provides numerous references and reports that demonstrate the ability of silver ions to kill a broad range of germs including bacterial, fungal, yeast and potentially viral pathogens that can at times threaten the health of the human body. It is important to note that to date no silver product has been shown in studies that would be sufficient enough for FDA drug approval that it effectively and safely delivers silver ions internally to the human body in a way that would reliably treat or prevent any disease or, for that matter, in a way that benefits the body in any way at all. No inference should be made that any other uses of ionic silver products in fighting germs or healing skin in humans mean that the same is reliably the case when any silver product is used internally in humans. The human body involves a very complex electrochemical environment and that conditions that are necessary for any ionic silver product to be effective at fighting microbes or healing tissue require a certain range of parameters in order for the given product to provide the desired or intended results in the given environment. This is an important distinction from both a scientific/medical point of view as well as a legal point of view. The legal requirement for "drug approval" speaks directly to the ability to claim or even infer that any product can kill germs inside the human body since that would entail making a "disease" or "drug" claim. CRUSH makes no such claims or inferences for any silver products whatsoever. To the extent that any ionic silver product may appear to benefit the human body in the body's efforts to fight germs, heal tissue and generally maintain a state of homeostasis, the members of CRUSH believe that in all cases it is the body that is doing the work, and that if the ionic silver is helping at all, it is only doing so by virtues of the fact that it is providing a common constituent to the structure and function of the body by virtue of helping to supplement for the silver content that has been depleted from the average diet over the past hundred years or so. For most Americans, for instance, the vast majority of silver that existed in the average American diet a hundred years ago is now missing from their diet. Some scientists and medical professionals speculate that the depletion of silver from the diet may be a contributing factor in the increased incidence of systemic infectious diseases in humans. While the government authorities in the United States do not currently recognize silver as a nutrient or as a required dietary ingredient, the facts that it has been so severely depleted from the diet, that is has always been a naturally occurring constituent of the diet of man until such depletion due to modern agriculture and commercialization, that it is well established that silver ions do indeed kill germs and facilitate the healing of tissue outside of the human body (and thus, it would seem, "may" do so under certain conditions inside of the human body), and that responsible amounts of ingested silver, such as the amount that has been depleted from the diet (and, it appears, a few times that amount) is entirely safe and absolutely without adverse health consequence to the human body, lead the members of CRUSH to maintain that supplementing with an ionic silver product in a responsible manner may be advisable, and apparently is entirely harmless to do.

Legal basis for providing information about the safety and efficacy of various ionic silver products in health

It is not legal to engage in the promotion and sale of any product for the purpose of it being used to prevent or treat any disease unless that product has been approved by the FDA as a "drug" for that disease. However, freedom of speech provides that it is perfectly legal for information to be shared about the possible health benefits of various substances and products provided that no commercial interests are involved, meaning that the information is just that, as opposed to being promotional in order to sell a product. This site and the purposes of CRUSH are focused on providing factual information about the safe use of silver in health, including potential, speculative uses as well as well established, existing uses, always with the emphasis on true, genuine facts and, above all, safety to humans. The promotion of any product is not the interest or purpose of this site or of CRUSH. In attempting to to achieve its goals, CRUSH endeavors to not only provide facts but also to address and discredit false and misleading claims made by others regarding the safe and effective use of silver and potential uses in the future. At times this involves addressing irresponsible statements made by members of the silver industry that assert that inadvisable quantities of silver can be ingested without consequence, and at other times this involves addressing equally irresponsible statements made by some critics of the use of silver in health that suggest silver is unsafe regardless of the way it is used. The latter often tends to imperatively include the addressing of false and misleading statements by those critics that state that silver is ineffective in assisting the body in fighting disease when taken internally. Since that is not a fact in any way, but is speculation that has no substantial scientific data to support it, CRUSH sometimes needs to site the numerous facts and reports that demonstrate or suggest the potential for silver at killing germs and therefore illustrate the potential for this to be case inside of the human body. It is unfortunate that CRUSH finds itself in the position of having to address very misleading statements made by some who gain press coverage, but that is the case and CRUSH therefore exercises its right to present facts and even suggestive reports that serve to demonstrate the lack of support for claims that state ionic silver is not effective at assisting the human body at fighting germs internally.

Potential conflicts of interest

The members of CRUSH are all dedicated, highly respected professionals in the field of health and/or closely related areas of discipline in one way or another. All are primarily concerned with the dissemination of legitimate, reliable facts regarding the safe use of silver in health with respect to their affiliation with CRUSH and this web site. Most of the member of CRUSH have no vested or commercial interests in any silver products or any products mentioned directly or indirectly on this web site. However, a few of the members of CRUSH do have commercial interests in the silver field and therefore could potentially have a conflict of interest either consciously or unintentionally in contributing information to this web site. While we do not believe this is a factor or that any compromise of objective information exists, we feel that pointing out this possible conflict, no matter how slight it might be, is the responsible thing to do. If you are aware of any information provided by this Committee and/or by this site that seems to be biased, less than objective, or commercially driven in any way, please do not hesitate to let us know so we can take a look at it.