🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <18383@bellcore.bellcore.com>, ephs@roy..bellcore.com (Barbara Chalfonte) writes:
> We have a _raging_ controversy here that standard sources of information have
> failed to resolve.  Is saliva basic or acidic?  I thought acidic, in keeping
> in line with the rest of the GI tract, my office-mate thought basic, being
> the exception to the GI tract.  So which is it?  Having looked at several
> standard dictionaries, medical dictionaries, and encyclopedias, the
> conclusion is still unresolved:  some say mildly alkaline, others say
> alkaline in reaction, and others say mildly acidic (pH=6.8).  Mostly these
> sources just don't say.

	The composition and hence pH and electrolyte content of saliva
VARIES, depending upon conditions which are usually determined by the RATE
of FLOW.

	A "quiescent mouth" [for lack of a better term :-)] contains saliva
which is markedly hypotonic, while a mouth in a state of active salivation
contains saliva which is almost isotonic.  The pH of typical human saliva in
the absence of pathology varies between 6.4 and 7.0.  The chief organic
constituent of saliva is mucin.

> PS:  The lucky winner with the definitive answer gets to find out _why_
> anyone in telecomm & computer research would want to know this...

	I am salivating for your answer.  If I might hazard a guess as
to _why_, are you perhaps investigating corrosion problems with handsets
and their transmitters elements?   I bet that a typical transmitter sees
its fair share of saliva over its lifetime!

<> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp.
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