Effect of Silver on Your Health

We recently received an email from a reader regarding a sterling water pitcher she was using. The water from the pitcher had a slight metallic taste, which she actually liked, but she was wondering about health issues. I have summarized her comments into the questions, adding some of my own:

• Could silver (or some other metal) be leeching into the water while it sits in the pitcher?
• If silver is in the water, is it bad for your health?
• Or does it have some positive impact?

We don't feel competent to answer any of these questions definitively. However, we'll offer some comments and pose some questions of our own.

1. Could there be something in the local water supply that's reacting with the sterling? Try pouring some bottled purified water into the pitcher and then drink it. Maybe you should rinse the pitcher thoroughly with purified water as a first step. Does it still taste metallic?
2. Have the tap water chemically analyzed and have some tap water that's been sitting in the pitcher for an hour or so analyzed to see if there is a difference.
3. Invite some neighbors in for a blind taste test to see if they can pick the water from the pitcher!
4. Silver in high enough concentration is bad for you. In severe cases, it will make your skin turn permanently gray. Really!
5. We have heard of health supplements containing silver but we can't comment on their effectiveness for anything and we would not ingest them ourselves.

This is a new topic for us and we hope readers who have more information will post comments or send us emails.

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