Water contamination by metals such as aluminum is becoming a serious problem. From the time it was discovered in the early 1800’s, aluminum was an expensive metal - 90 dollars per pound. This changed in 1886 when Charles Martin Hall, a college student, developed a cheap and effective method of extracting the metal from the ore. Its availability made the price quickly drop to 2 dollars a pound. In the last hundred years since, aluminum has risen to become the third largest manufactured metal and is found in a variety of products both as a metal and in compounds such as bauxite and alum.
But aluminum has introduced its own problems. D.R.C. McLachlan did an extensive study and linked the frequency of Alzheimer’s cases with the amount of aluminum in the water supply. He concluded that if the aluminum level in the public water had been kept below 100 micrograms/liter, a fourth or more of the cases could have been prevented. Other problems are also related to the presence of aluminum, such as some lung diseases.
The industrial revolution has taken a 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. The metals tend to accumulate and affect especially the nervous system.
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 contaminate the water supplies and are ingested by people.
As we learn more about the connection between Alzheimer’s and aluminum in our water source, it is bound to spur us to action. This author got rid of the aluminum pot we used to boil tea water in a first step toward decreasing the family’s contact with aluminum.
The most important action is to immediately start filtering drinking water. Whether you get your water from a well or the city supply, aluminum will surely be present. Though cities usually have a maximum level of between 50 and 200 g/L, further filtering is still wise.
One technique is to distill your drinking water but this also removes valuable minerals and the taste. A better plan is to purchase a filter that uses activated carbon filters for they are able to remove 95% of the aluminum in the water. Since this metal does not benefit the body, the more we remove, the better off we are!
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