Hello, Nenah, Reproductive toxicity and developmental toxicity of silver is reviewed in the chapter on silver of the National Research Council's book, Spacecraft Water Exposure Guidelines For Selected Contaminants, Volume 1, National Academies Press, Washington DC, 2004. On page 339 the NRC text reports:
"No human data on the reproductive toxicity of silver are available. Male rats given water containing silver chloride or silver nitrate (89 mg/kg/d over a 2-y period did not show any change in the appearance or production of spermatozoa or any accumulation of silver. There was a transient epididymal edema and deformation (Olcott 1948). Only a few studies have reported developmental effects of silveror silver compounds. None of those pertain to ingestion. In a study of embryonic toxicity of 54 elements including silver in chicks (Ridgway and Karnofsky 1952), there were no effects of silver. Wistar rat pups injected subcutaneously with silver lactate at doses of 0.1, 0.2, or 0.35 mg/kg/d during weeks 1,2,3 or 4 had smaller pyramidal cells within the hippocampus, indicative of silver toxicity (Rungby et al. 1987), but the functional implications are not clear. Rungby and Danscher (1983) reported neuronal accumulation of silver in the brains of progeny from argyric rats. No effects related to developmental toxicity were found." Furthermore, no genotoxic effects of silver in humans have been reported (p.339.) Best regards, Matthew
