The tiny, useful particle that could also be a health problem

For as long as there have been socks, there have been smelly socks, and attempts to try to solve that eternal, noxious problem.

For the last few years, a type of sock has become very popular because it has the solution built right in: infinitesimal particles of silver, naturally anti-bacterial and, thus, anti-odiferous.

The silver, known since ancient times to have disinfectant properties, works so well because particles so small can be vastly more powerful than the same substance at normal size.

It's hard to overstate just how small. "Nano" means one-billionth of a metre. In many cases, this refers to the scale of atoms, which are the smallest units of all matter.

A human hair, by comparison, is 80,000 nanometres wide.

But what happens to the particles in the socks? In an experiment reported at the American Chemical Society meeting last month, two Arizona State University scientists, Troy Benn and Paul Westerhoff, washed seven brands of nanosilver socks and then tested the wastewater. All but one pair leaked silver.

That silver, of course, ends up in our sewers, rivers and lakes.

Via The Toronto Star