Replied by John Dinsley (author of Charcoal Remedies)
Yes, charcoal is used in black gun powder - for the old flintlock rifles. The Chinese were the first to use charcoal in black powder for fireworks and it is even used in pyrotechnics in our day. It is also used in fuel cells in the newest hybrid cars and in a thousand other industrial applications.
Charcoal is an enigma! I sympathize with the general skepticism about medicinal charcoal. It is hard to believe that something that has such powerful healing qualities is also used in so many unrelated industrial uses but so is water, air, light, and heat. But, to take bulk charcoal off the market because it is used in gunpowder is about as unintelligent as taking bottled water off the market because it can be used to make scalding steam in saunas, mixed with glycol to make antifreeze, or peel off tree bark under high pressure, or.....
I believe the main reason charcoal is being pulled is because it so effectively adsorbs most medications that certain health authorities are pressuring health food stores to not carry charcoal at all. I know this to be the case in some Provinces in Canada.
Hard to imagine we may one day need a prescription to buy this most benign of natural medicines.
Replied by John (Crawford, Nebraska) on 03/01/2009
It is still very difficult to find activated charcoal powder in local outlets. Most likely you will have to search online. Just Google "Buy Bulk Activated Charcoal" or you can go to www.BuyActivatedCharcoal.com/bulk
john
