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Consumers may soon be able to go for longer between milk-buying trips. That's because Brazilian company Agrindus hopes to start marketing plastic milk bottles that use embedded silver nanoparticles to kill bacteria. Grade A pasteurized fresh whole milk packaged in those bottles can reportedly last for up to 15 days, as opposed to the usual seven.
The technology was developed by partner company Nanox, and involves first coating silica ceramic particles with silver nanoparticles. This reportedly has a synergistic effect, with the silica boosting the antimicrobial properties of the silver.
Those coated particles take the form of a powder that is subsequently mixed into liquid polyethylene. Using blow- or injection-molding, that plastic is then made into bottles which Agrindus plans to sell to dairy goods companies. The particles can also be used to make milk bags, which should extend shelf life from four to 10 days.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DeathMonkey on Thursday August 06 2015, @08:31AM
Technically, silver is a heavy metal. It's supposedly harmless but the fact that it kills bacteria does make one wonder...
To be fair to heavy metals, though, many are regulated due to effects on sensitive wildlife (e.g. zinc kills fish eggs, etc) and not for known harmful effects to humans.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2015, @09:19AM
um... I think in general it's a good idea to keep heavy metals away. At least, there were at least a couple of episodes of House MD where the patient was gonna die due to heavy metal poisoning (including the memorable one about the dude dying of gold poisoning).
also, see wiki link to argyria that people posted above.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @03:49AM
A fictional TV show should never be used to support your position on anything (except culture).
(Score: 2) by penguinoid on Thursday August 06 2015, @11:31AM
Almost all metals can accumulate and cause poisoning, and this includes metals like iron and copper that you need to live. Even more generally, anything that doesn't dissolve in water won't be passing through your kidneys.
RIP Slashdot. Killed by greedy bastards.
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday August 06 2015, @05:06PM
That's not quite the case. Once the silver is in nanoparticle form, it will be able to travel everywhere in your body including crossing the blood-brain barrier and through your kidneys.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday August 06 2015, @06:42PM
The most common version of Heavy Metal Poisoning is probably Lead Poisoning which does have adverse effects on the human body. From Wikipedia "Chronic ingestion or inhalation of silver preparations (especially colloidal silver) can lead to argyria in the skin and other organs. This is not life-threatening, but is considered by most as cosmetically undesirable." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria/ [wikipedia.org] Interesting wikipedia article on "Colloidal Gold." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colloidal_gold/ [wikipedia.org] You really have to ingest a Lot of Silver / Gold to start to experience side effects. I also wouldn't start quoting the TV Series House on the subject . . .
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"