List, In case I wasn't being clear in my last message, I wanted to take time out from unpacking and muse aloud for a moment on the differences between inherent toxicity, toxicity in volume, and irritation.
Mercury is a good example of **inherent toxicity.** There is an extraordinarily low threshold when even tiny amounts become undesirable. For pregnant women and children, the only acceptable amount of mercury is *no* mercury (even though this may be an unrealistic figure, given the predominance of mercury). I can't imagine that mercury could be considered an "irritant." Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a good example of **toxicity in volume.** The H2O2 I use is 3%. I spray it in my kitchen and bathroom, and use it as an underarm deodorant when I'm out of colloidal silver. (Some people drink it too, but I'll leave that out of this discussion.) At 3%, H2O2 is safe to handle. However, in higher concentrations it is not. For instance, I get my H2O2 in 8% solution bottles and then dilute it. Even an 8% solution will burn the skin and turn it white -- although this is a temporary state; the skin goes back to normal in a day or two. A 35% solution I even more dangerous; you have to be super careful because you don't want that getting into your eye. At that percentage of concentration, H202 can blind you if it gets into your eye. However, hydrogen peroxide still could not be called *inherently* toxic. At safe enough dilutions, it can do a lot of good. This is in clear contrast from mercury, which is unsafe in any amounts. Ozone is a good example of **irritation**, although the way I am using the terms here "irritation" can be synonymous with **toxicity in volume.** Clarke Thorpe found that ozone is generally safe in concentrations of up to even 50 ppm (parts per million). Physician George Freibott makes a good case for safety in even higher amounts. When ozone is breathed through olive oils or certain essential oils such as tea tree or juniper, new compounds are created that help rather than harm the lungs. It is unclear to me whether or not individuals sensitive to turpenes will react negatively to an ozone/essential oil combination, since this combo is a different compound than either ozone by itself or an essential oil by itself. Dr. Neel's patented device, which combined ozone with essential oils, was a forerunner of Tom Harrelson's inhaler and can be found on the web. If enough pure ozone is breathed, in high enough concentrations and for long enough periods of time, it can indeed irritate the lungs. However, providing the concentrations are not higher than what the person can absolutely tolerate, and provided the time periods are in an acceptable range, it is a local irritation and the lungs do recover. Of course, the concentration and time periods are not the same for all people. Freibott has a good story, already cited on this list earlier, about how mice recovered and then became healthier after being exposed to what were thought to be unacceptably high levels of ozone. Also, what is not publicized often is that many tests with ozone have been conducted with mice, which by definition have a much lower resistance to ozone -- or rather, the oxidation effects of ozone -- than the humans with which the mice are being compared. It's much easier to know if you're in danger from ozone than, say, mercury. Coughing from breathing pure ozone, or ozone through oil, is the body's self-regulating way of saying "enough," so it's unlikely that this method will be harmful if you pay attention to your body's responses. There is a strong similarity between **irritation** and **toxicity in volume.** They might even mean the same thing. However, either of these categories are not at all similar to inherent toxicity. Ozone cannot, at least in my mind, by any stretch of the imagination be called inherently toxic. There is simply too much evidence to the contrary. And, I think the analogy with mercury makes this point well. As with any modality, when using ozone it's wise to see how much detoxification your body can handle. I hope I have succeeded in making my point clear. I'll probably be offline for the next few days, simply because I need to catch up with unpacking. I need to find things; it's a bit disorienting to have stuff in cartons. Regards, Nenah Nenah Sylver, PhD Holistic health products, supplements and services http://www.nenahsylver.com Author of newly released The Holistic Handbook of Sauna Therapy -- The Silver List is a moderated forum for discussing Colloidal Silver. Instructions for unsubscribing are posted at: http://silverlist.org To post, address your message to: [email protected] Silver List archive: http://escribe.com/health/thesilverlist/index.html Address Off-Topic messages to: [email protected] OT Archive: http://escribe.com/health/silverofftopiclist/index.html List maintainer: Mike Devour <[email protected]>
