Controversy over antibacterial silver: implications for environmental and sustainability assessments

Abstract

a b s t r a c tThe potential risks and benefits of using silver, especially nanosilver, as an antibacterial agent in consumer and healthcare products are under debate globally. Using content analysis of texts from newspaper and TV, government agencies, municipalities, government and parliament, non-governmental organizations, and companies, we analyze the argumentation in the Swedish public controversy over antibacterial silver and relate the findings to environmental and sustainability assessments. We conclude that silver is regarded as either beneficial or harmful in relation to four main values: the environment, health, sewage treatment, and product effectiveness. Various arguments are used to support positive and negative evaluations of silver, revealing several contradictory reasons for considering silver beneficial or harmful. Current environmental and sustainability assessments (i.e. substance flow analysis, risk analysis, multi-criteria analysis, and lifecycle assessment) cover many of the concerns raised in the public controversy over antibacterial silver and can therefore inform the debate regarding its toxicity, emissions, and environmental impact. However, not all concerns raised in the public controversy are covered by current environmental and sustainability assessments, most notably, concerns over public health and bacterial resistance issues are not paid full attention. For future environmental and sustainability assessments to make an even more significant societal contribution and to inform consumers and decision-makers about concerns articulated in the public debate, a wider range of issues concerning antibacterial silver needs to be considered through a unified framework.

“Just Carbon”: Ideas About Graphene Risks by Graphene Researchers and Innovation Advisors

“…Figure 1 provides a summary of the most widely voiced primary ideas and their rationales. It can be noted that these rationales correlate well with arguments identified in a previous study of antibacterial silver as a risk issue, including high/low toxicity, high/low exposure, low amount/quantity, and similarity to harmful substances (in that case mercury) [ 59 ].

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“…In addition to associations between graphene and risk, we are interested in the arguments that support such risk claims and we therefore identify the rationales communicated [ 59 ]. Some responses by the respondents were found to follow a risk/no-risk rhetoric as described by Corvellec and Boholm [ 60 ] and therefore categorized accordingly.…”

Toxicity Testing of Pristine and Aged Silver Nanoparticles in Real Wastewaters Using Bioluminescent Pseudomonas putida

“…Ag NPs discharged to the wastewater stream were shown to be sulfidized to varying degrees and to be largely aggregated with biomass and biosolids [ 24 , 25 , 27 ]. Although there is clearly controversy on the risks and benefits of Ag NP containing consumer and healthcare products [ 41 ], the global impact of Ag NPs to WWTPs ( i.e. , therefore their actual toxicity in CWs) may be limited at the present time [ 33 ].…”

Potential anticancer properties of bioactive compounds of Gymnema sylvestre and its biofunctionalized silver nanoparticles

“…Our findings clearly demonstrate that it is indeed possible to have a much greener way to synthesize SNPs without compromising their antibacterial properties and thus plant extracts may prove to be a good alternative to obtain such NPs with improved antibacterial and antiviral properties for diabetic wound healing applications. Goix et al 33 and Boholm and Arvidsson 34 have pointed out that silver is either beneficial or harmful in relation to four main values: the environment, health, sewage treatment, and product effectiveness. As reported by Barua et al 35 poly(ethylene glycol)-stabilized colloidal SNPs showed the nonhazardous anticancer and antibacterial properties.…”