Tag Archives: Firstar

Silver nanoparticles, local business, and some toxicity findings

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In December 2008 I saw an article in The Province’s business pages about a local apparel (sportswear) company, Firstar, which produces shirts that don’t smell or stain due to a special polyester fabric that is “moisture- and heart-repelling and bacteria-destroying.” This time they’ve gotten a write up in Business Vancouver

When I first wrote about the company (Dec.22.08), I noted that there was a mention of silver ions which gave the fabric its anti-bacterial properties. I noted that the silver ions were likely silver nanoparticles. I did email a question to the company about this. There was a reply but no information about the silver nanoparticles and possible health issues.

It’s interesting to note that the Business in Vancouver article makes no reference to silver ions and the fabric is described as a microfibre material. Of course, the focus is mostly on the business side of it, which is natural given the paper’s readership/market.

Seeing the article reminded me of them and I went looking for information about silver nanoparticles and some of the concerns regarding its use. I found this article by Michael Berger. It seems that silver nanoparticles can be toxic and the reason for being concerned is that the particles are appearing in the water supply. The sport shirt that hardly ever has to be washed eventually  does have to be washed. And because silver nanoparticles can be washed away, they end up in the water supply.

There are a lot of companies (not just Firstar) using nanoparticles in their products and what that means nobody really knows. Personally, I’d be a little careful about using anything with silver nanoparticles in it.

Sporty nano in Vancouver, Canada

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As soon as I saw the title I knew it had to be a nanotech product. “The new ‘no sweat’ science” was an article in the Sunday (Dec. 21, 2008) edition of The Province daily paper. A local company, Firstar Sports (based in Surrey), makes a shirt that wicks away your sweat and never smells. The current CEO, Keith Gracey, wore the shirt over a period of months for his workouts and never washed it. Plus, he never had any complaints about the smell.

The ‘no smell’ part was the clue. There’s been a lot of talk about silver nanoparticles and their anti-bacterial properties which can be used in bandages to combat (infection and in clothing to combat smell.  Interestingly, nobody used the word nanotechnology or any of its variants in the article,

Throw in some anti-bacterial silver ions and Firstar’s garments have a 99.9-er-cent kill rate for bacteria after 50 washes, Gracey  (CEO) and Thom (Founder and VP) say. [emphasis is mine]

Certainly the marketing and PR folks seem to be backing off from using the nanotechnology or any of its variants. I commented on this development in my Talking nano posting. I also gave a link to an article by Alex Shmidt about this.

The article in The Province did not mention any risks but i don’t expect the reporter knew enough to ask the question. For the record, I have seen material which indicates that the silver nanoparticles (or ions) wash off, which means they could end up in our water supply. As far as I know, there’s no definitive data whether or not this feature could pose risks.