The Dangers of Aluminum Toxicity The subject of aluminum toxicity has caused controversy for at least twenty years and has been known to be toxic for over a hundred years (depending on amounts.) It is found in our food supply, in the air and soil, and is bound to bauxite in nature. Only in the last thirty years or so have we been exposed to it in such quantities because of processed food, metal tins, water supply and hygiene products. You'll be surprised to learn some of the offending substances where we find fairly large quantities of added aluminum. Sliced cheese singles, many other dairy products as an emulsifier, infant formula, cake mixes, baking powder, self-rising flour, commercial dough, non-dairy creamer, pickles, dandruff shampoo (Selsun Blue,) and, of course, anti-perspirants and antacids. In non food items, it's in every can of pop and beer, most cookware, most major city water supplies used to settle out solids, and is in the from pollution. Some countries have very high levels because of spent mines. Recently, an old mineshaft in West Virginia broke open and water, sludge and tailings roared down the mountainside, fouling the area with one of the worst environmental disasters in a long time. It gets into the groundwater system through agriculture from soil erosion and poor current mining practices. For some reason, not so strangely, the levels are elevated in children around the world, and in infants even more because of their small body mass. The levels in Germany for children aged 5 - 8 was .8, in the U.S. it was 6.5. And in infants the level ranged from .03 to 7 according to the World Health Organization research. The difference between American and German children was dramatic. The same WHO documentation (from 1997) showed that aluminum caused DNA changes in rats and mice in scientific research. Mutations were found in bone marrow cells of mice and rats exposed to aluminum. This does not bode well for the human race! Professor Harold Foster,(at the University of Victoria) who's involved in medical geography for 33 years, has been doing his own research on the geography of aluminum. He lives in Victoria, B.C. which, thankfully to him, is an aluminum-free water zone. He goes so far as to refuse to buy aluminum foil to put on leftovers. Of course he also stays away from processed and junk foods because they are loaded with aluminum. His take is "One of the major problems with our society is that we are too much concerned with convenience. And it's an enormous moneymaker, employing large numbers of people." He wrote about a study of 668 autopsied brains in Ontario, which proved that water with more than 100 micrograms of aluminum (ppm) increases the risk of Alzheimers by 2.5. There have been many inconclusive reports on damage and, the thing I keep wondering about (because the studies all show that there is no "grave" danger in having aluminum in food and water) is the general health of the participants. It seems that the people most susceptible to metal poisoning and, subsequently, Alzheimer's disease are those with impaired immune systems. The bottom line is….sick people are going to become much sicker if they ingest aluminum, a toxic substance that can cross the blood-brain barrier. Research should be conducted on people who are not perfectly healthy...but then we might find something out that we don't want to know. I can't imagine how much it would cost the cities who use aluminum in the water, to change to a non-toxic method of cleaning it. Several "antidotes" to overuse of aluminum is calcium and magnesium. If the body can hold these minerals (there are many people who's bodies do not absorb calcium well, for one reason or another) the ongoing use of them will help keep aluminum at bay. Along with calcium and magnesium, zinc and phosphorus bind with the aluminum and excrete it, keeping it from lodging in the vital organs. An important point to ponder is the fact that our food sources have become sorely depleted in cal/mag. Bread, many years ago, was a good source, but now has almost none that is bio-available. So make sure you're taking a vitamin with supplemented minerals. When aluminum crosses the blood-brain barrier it immediately fills in the spaces that calcium and magnesium should be taking up. This then causes enzymes and proteins in the brain to become useless and thereby impair brain function. The end (in more ways than one) result is the degeneration of neurons and memory loss, as well as all the other aberrations that befall Alzheimers' patients. Here in Canada, a government committee has recently set the limit for aluminum at 100 micrograms per liter of water in the drinking supply. This has been based on short-circuiting neurological toxicity that was determined by Canadian scientists. Next year the final recommendations will be widely published. Let's all hope and pray that new guidelines will make people aware of the harm aluminum can do to even slightly ill people, not to mention little children. For starters, use distilled water, and stay away from canned and packaged foods! Back to the Writing Index