Mom, can I eat the paper ? silver foil

Child picked up a piece of barfi, he never failed to ask the question, “Mom, can I eat the paper?” Perhaps his query was an ongoing joke.

Or perhaps, his query was based on an instinctive understanding of the risk of eating silver.

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle about a lawsuit suit claimed that silver was a toxic substance that caused harm to humans, particularly children.

According to a 1992 report by the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances, silver can be harmful to humans if eaten in more than a miniscule amount. The report said that if more than .005mg/kg are consumed per day, silver can cause lung and throat lesions, and can spark infections and abdominal pain. It can also turn the skin gray-blue or black in a condition called argyria. It is often difficult for people to know how much silver they can have in their bodies, because it’s a so-called bio-accumulative metal. Once consumed, silver lodges in body fat or the nervous system for life. So, if a child swallowed silver foil, the amount of silver in the decoration would stay in the body, building up to potentially more toxic levels with any other silver the person knowingly or unknowingly consumed throughout lifetime, including dietary silver that is naturally consumed through natural foods.

It turns out that the silver in silver foil is not the only danger that consumers face. Even though the silver foil is microscopically thin, silver is a precious metal and can be expensive to use. So aluminum is substituted for silver in many cases, causing even more harm. There are reports that the silver foil can also be contaminated with lead, which is known to cause brain damage in children.

The use of silver foil in food in India goes back thousands of years, it is claimed; in fact, India converts 13 British tons of pure silver into edible foil every year.

One news report claimed that the consumption of varakh is sacrilegious to vegetarians and Hindus because the intestines of oxen and other cattle are used in its manufacture. The report alleged that intestines of animals are pulled out of the carcasses and handed over to the manufacturers of varakh who wash them out for blood and other animal remains before binding them into pages like a notebook. A sliver block is then placed in the middle of these bound intestines, it is reported, which are sealed. The leather bag is pounded with wooden sticks, until the bag is flattened out, creating a very fine film of silver. The silver foil thus created is separated from the intestine pack and shipped to consumers who unsuspectingly eat the minute quantities of beef, blood, and other impurities attached to its surface.

It seems there are more questions than answers at this point.