A CASE OF THE BLUES.(physical and psychological effects of argyria, silver poisoning, caused by dietary supplements )

The last time silver was a big issue in an American election was probably in 1896, when William Jennings Bryan was running on a pro-silver-based-currency platform and giving his famous "Cross of Gold" speech. Now silver is back, in Montana politics, though it is not so much in the campaign as in one of the campaigners.

Specifically, silver is in the Libertarian candidate for the United States Senate, Stan Jones, and silver is in him to such an extent that he has turned blue, or blue-gray, depending on how you look at him. His condition is known as argyria, and he developed it three years ago after drinking a homemade colloidal-silver concoction, in preparation for Y2K-related antibiotics shortages. Naturally, pundits have made the most of this, likening him to the Smurfs and the Blue Man Group, among others. Jones has complained that such comparisons are distracting voters from his platform, which includes a call to dismantle the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the A.T.F., the National Park Service, the Forest Service, and the Departments of Energy and Education. But there is one person, at least, who, though not happy about the fact that Jones contracted argyria, is pleased that he has mentioned his condition in public--Rosemary Jacobs.

"I'm thrilled!" Jacobs said the other day, from her home, in Vermont. "People who don't believe me will hear him."

A retired Montessori-school teacher, Jacobs, who is sixty, developed argyria as a child on Long Island, after her doctor prescribed nose drops with silver in them. She did not recognize that she had changed color until she was fourteen and a nun asked her, "Why are you that color?" Subsequently, Jacobs learned that silver builds up in human tissue and that, as far as anyone knows, its toxic side effects cannot be reversed. The discoloration--her skin is a bluish-gray--is concentrated mostly on her face and upper body. A doctor once attempted to sand the color off her skin, to no avail. "I don't know what I look like anymore," she said. "I can only know what I look like by the reactions of strangers, and I do know that I frighten people." She sometimes shouts back at those who shout rude remarks at her, and outstares people who stare. "Many people with argyria become reclusive. I'm sorry, but I'm not going to do that. If you don't like how I look, it's your problem."

Jacobs has maintained a Web site cautioning people about the dangers of silver, since she noticed, a few years ago, that health-food stores were selling silver and extolling its benefits, which are sometimes said to include the cure of acne, cancer, leprosy, plague, ...