Here is a little something I bet you did not know the new covid-19 Vaccine has Silver in it that's why silver is in high demand. (#Read this.!)
Medicine's growing silver use
Of all chemical elements, silver has the most powerful antibacterial action with the least toxicity to animal cells. Because like the other, more expensive precious metals, it interrupts the ability of bacteria cells to form certain chemical bonds essential to their survival. But cells in humans and other animals have thicker walls, and are so undisturbed.
When added to water, silver releases silver ions. These ions also kill and prevent biological growth, again disabling the metabolism of germs and hindering their membrane functions. The value of these properties has been known and used for centuries.
The Ancient Phoenicians, for instance, found they could keep water and other liquids fresh by storing them in silver-coated bottles. American pioneers 3,000 years later prevented dysentery, colds, and flu by putting silver dollars in milk bottles. Silver biocides are today found in hospital water systems, catheters, furniture and almost every tool in the operating theatre. Silver-copper ionisation has also been approved as a primary treatment for long-term control of legionella in air-cooling systems.
Silver nitrate was used in the late 1800s to cure new-born babies of certain eye infections, and doctors found that wounds healed faster with silver dressings. The metal was used in sutures for surgical wounds and to cure ulcers – a use which continues today, with silver-embedded bandages proven to be especially effective in healing the wounds of burn victims.
During the 1920s, over 3 million prescriptions per year were written in the US for medications containing silver. Due to the introduction of penicillin in the 1940s, antibiotics became the standard treatment for bacterial infections, and this use of silver diminished. But new scientific research has since allowed fresh expansion of the medical industry's use of silver.
Nanotechnology uses silver as an antimicrobial, reducing the metal to particles measured in billionths of a metre. This nanosilver acts as a catalyst for oxidation, generating oxygen from air or water which destroys the cell wall membranes of single-cell bacteria. Because it only "turns on" this reaction, it does not pollute the surrounding environment.
In sum, there is much more to silver than its historical use as a monetary metal, or its ongoing use in jewellery and investment. Industrial and technological use of silver accounts for well over half annual demand. That demand plays an important and changing part in helping set long-term price direction.
