Silver in Healthcare: Its Antimicrobial Efficacy and Safety in Use

Dr Alan BG Lansdown is at Imperial College, Faculty of Medicine, Charing Cross Hospital, Department of Clinical Chemistry, London, UK. He graduated in biological sciences at Birkbeck College (University of London) and proceeded to train as a toxicological pathologist in the safety evaluation of new drugs, food additives, environmental contaminants and anaesthetic gases. In his post-doctoral research, he specialised in the study of pathological mechanisms of pre-natal growth impairment through the action of infections in pregnancy and pre-natal bone development through a Medical Research Council Fellowship. He was a founder member of the British Society for Developmental Pathology and organised several international meetings. In collaboration with Barry Sampson of the Trace Metals Laboratory and the Department of Vascular Surgery of Charing Cross Hospital, he investigated the therapeutic importance of metals including silver in modulating the wound environment and improving wound healing patterns and the quality of life. Although not a microbiologist, he has collaborated widely with clinicians and microbiologists in the United Kingdom and abroad in investigating profiles of wound infection and patterns of resistance. Dr Lansdown has published more than 250 scientific papers and book chapters and lectured widely. With bursaries from the Royal Society and the British Council, he developed close links with the Universities of Chulalongkorn and Khon Kaen in Thailand. Although presently retired, he holds the position of Honorary Senior Lecturer and senior research fellow in Imperial College, London. He is a toxicological consultant with special interests in the microbial efficacy and safety of silver and zinc, but writes on the toxicology of metals in the environment.