Are You Drinking Aluminum Impurities?
Water contamination by metals such as aluminum is becoming a serious problem. Until the late 1800’s, aluminum was an expensive metal – 90 dollars a pound. But in 1886, Charles Martin Hall developed a cheap, practical method of extracting aluminum from ore. The price quickly dropped to 2 dollars per pound and aluminum became more available. 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 this ubiquitous metal has not come into use without problems. D.R.C. McLachlan found in a study that a relationship did exist between the number of diagnosed Alzheimer’s cases and the level of aluminum present in the drinking 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. Aluminum is also related to other problems such as some lung diseases.
Yes, industry has taken its toll. Studies are revealing that most all metals like aluminum, when ingested over longer periods of time, adversely affect our health. The metals tend to accumulate and affect especially the nervous system.
Aluminum is found in the oceans (the Atlantic more than the Pacific) and the total aluminum concentration in the human body is approximately 9 ppm. It is the accumulation of aluminum in the system that causes 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.
The increasing appearance of Alzheimer’s is alarming and its possible connection with aluminum in drinking water will no doubt motivate all of us to act. 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. After all, aluminum will be found in water from wells and city water sources. Though cities usually have a maximum level of between 50 and 200 g/L, further filtering is still wise.
Of course, drinking water could be distilled but then the taste as well as other desirable minerals are also removed. 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!
The best line of activated charcoal filter we are aware of is the Berkey Filters. Whether you choose their Berkey Light or another model, each set of filters they ship with can be re-cleaned to purify up to 6,000 gallons of water.
