Are You Drinking Aluminum Pollution?
The contamination of water by aluminum is an ever growing problem. Until the late 1800’s, aluminum was an expensive metal - 90 dollars a pound. Then, in 1886, Charles Martin Hall developed an inexpensive method of extracting the metal from the ore. Its availability made the price quickly drop to 2 dollars a pound. Now, for over a hundred years, aluminum has been used in a variety of ways both in compounds such as alum and bauxite, and, as the third most produced metal.
But this ubiquitous metal has not come into use without problems. A study by D.R.C. McLachlan showed a disturbing relationship between the amount of aluminum in drinking water and Alzheimer’s cases. At least one fourth of the cases could have been prevented, he concluded, if the public water supply had had an aluminum level below 100 micrograms/liter. The presence of aluminum in water has also been linked to other problems such as some lung diseases.
Yes, industry has taken its toll. After years of study, we are learning that metals like aluminum are harmful to the body when children or adults ingest them for a long period of time. They tend to accumulate and affect the body, especially the nerve cells.
It is not so bad that aluminum is found in water since the oceans both contain some, and the body normally has about 9 ppm. But accumulation over long periods of time cause the problems. The most common compounds of aluminum, aluminum oxide and aluminum hydroxide, are both insoluble. But other compounds of aluminum leech into the water systems and are ingested.
As we learn more about the connection between Alzheimer’s and aluminum in our water source, it is bound to spur us to action. For example, when this author read the above information, we got rid of the aluminum pan we used for boiling tea.
The most important action is to immediately start filtering drinking water. Whether your source of water is a well or a city supply, aluminum will be present. Most cities set a maximum allowable level of 50 and 200 g/L but further filtration is still a good idea.
A thorough way to clean out aluminum from drinking water is to distill the water, but this also removes valuable minerals as well as taste. Activated carbon filters claim to be able to remove 95% of the aluminum in drinking water. No known disease or problem results from a lack of aluminum in the body so the more we remove, the better!
Berkey Water Filters are the best line of activated charcoal filter we are aware of. Check out the Imperial Berkey or another model. One amazing feature is that each set of filters they ship with can be re-cleaned to purify up to 6,000 gallons of drinking water.
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