In his book
The Disappearing Spoon, about the periodic table, author
Sam Kean chronicled the experience of Jones, who developed
argyria, which permanently turned his skin a blue-grey color, by consuming large quantities of home-made
colloidal silver. Jones' purposeful consumption of silver, which he believed to be an antibiotic, was a measure he undertook in response to his fears that the
Y2K problem would make
antibiotics unavailable, an event that did not occur. Jones is reported to have said, given the chance to go back, he would do it all over again. The
National Institutes of Health have stated that “evidence supporting health-related claims (of colloidal silver) is lacking”. ==Policy stances==