Aluminium and Health

7 percent of the earth’s crust is made up of aluminium. Although aluminium in its raw form is not readily available because of its capability to react instantly, it has been present in the ore form as bauxite since the earth's crust formed. We have been exposed to aluminium for about over 150 years now. We all consume small amounts of aluminium in our daily lives – in the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink. Some say it has adverse effects on your health. But it has been the continuous effort of the scientific community to explore the impact of aluminium on our health.

Aluminium is used ion food packaging, beverage cans, utensils, in our homes, drinking water, medicines, cosmetics etc. We have been using this since long as consumables and as an indispensable part of our lives. Till now, the mainstream scientific community has had a definite stand in forming a consensus – normal day-to-day usage of aluminium does not have any adverse effects on a person’s health.

Plants, their fruits and most vegetables contain aluminium because they absorb it from the soil. Salts have traces of aluminium, storage of soft drinks and other beverages are done in aluminium cans, food is brought in aluminium trays, medicines are stored in aluminium capsules – this list goes on and on. The amount of aluminium we get in our bodies is very small, somewhat to the tune of about 0.1 mg/day is almost all cases. It is even a common component in surface water. Aluminium Sulphate (alum) is also used for purifying water supplies. However, we ingest less than 1% of our daily aluminium intake only. It is noteworthy that aluminium exposure through air amounts to only 0.04 mg/day, way lesser than the percent of the contribution we get through food.

However, the uses of the ‘green metal’ had already found a way into medicine during the ancient Rome and Greece period. Compounds of aluminium were especially used to stop bleeding of wounds. Aluminium Hydroxide is present in the modern day vaccines to treat stomach ulcers and kidney failures. If we come to more applications of it in consumer products, antiperspirants and cosmetics have also employed aluminium in such forms which help in blocking perspiration from the body.

However, too much of anything is bad and aluminium is no exception. An overdose can cause neurotoxic effects. Aluminium is poorly absorbed by the human body. Hence almost 99% of it excreted as it is from. But an overexposure means taking in more of the substance than the body can eliminate and thus causes harm. But the normal intake of aluminium has potentially no harm for a human being. Some facts have been asserted to be true by various health organisations and medical communities from around the world as mentioned below:

Comments

Aluminium in guitars – It's all music to our ears

Think of a guitar and the classic wooden version comes to mind. There are hundreds of types and they come in all shapes and sizes. Some passionate players even go for custom made guitars just to suit their movements and taste. The simple guitar is still evolving with newer uses of the instruments in concerts and other forms of music. The use of wood in the body and the neck of a guitar is not going to cease in a long time. However, the use of other selected materials by modern guitar manufacturers has significantly improved the sound quality and handling of the guitars. “Manufacturers were making custom guitars from solid billeted aluminum. I was still in graduate school and couldn’t afford such instruments. So I decided to make a competitively priced guitar. Instead of wood or plastic, I opted to use 0.080-in. aircraft-grade aluminum sheet metal because of its quality and durability,” says the then-future CEO of Normandy Guitars. Aluminium Guitar The use of Alumin...

Aluminium extrusions - The ultimate value addition of Aluminium downstream

From simple paper clips to complex pieces used in advanced technology, aluminium extrusions are created in various shapes and sizes for value added end use utilizations. The computer you are using right now contains at least one aluminium profile in the form of a heat sink. This takes advantage of aluminium’s excellent thermal conductivity, unique anodising capability and freedom of design to keep your computer’s processor cool. Different cross sections of extrusions Extrusion is a process used to create objects of a fixed cross-sectional profile. A special tool called a ‘die’ is used to create these extrusions by cutting or shaping the material with the help of a press. These dies are customized to create the wanted design. The process involves the pressing of a pre-heated solid cylinder of aluminium (billet) which is forced through the die opening. The billets are heated to a temperature range of 350 – 500 degrees Celsius. Aluminium does not glow when heated ye...

The choice is clear - Aluminium body for high end smartphones

A lot of phone companies are trying to build slim and sturdy phones for the ever growing market of steroid enhanced hardware capabilities. With phone manufacturers stuffing more RAM and precision cameras in the modern phones, the weight and robustness of the frames becomes all the more important. Today, some manufactures prefer a fiber body to reduce the overall weight in comparison to metal bodies. However, there’s something which still draws a larger advocacy of using aluminium bodies instead of a plastic or fiber. In 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs penned an open letter highlighting changes to the company's environmental policy in hopes of achieving "a greener Apple." In the letter, Jobs specifically noted the Mac maker's adoption of aircraft-grade aluminum in order to improve recycling uptake. Apart from the cost reduction implications, Apple is strongly in favor of aluminium usage in all its products for improving its year on year recycling capabilities with...

Aluminium vs. Steel - (1) The changing tides in the automotive sector

To Steel or not to Steel… That is the question. To Aluminium… This might be the answer. The automobile industry is the one constantly shifting tides in technology and design to achieve perfection and quality. Everything is done with precision to maximise the output from the machines with as few resources as possible. After all, this is necessary as natural resources are limited and so are the resources which people can spare for an economical, ergonomic and environment-friendly vehicle of personal transportation. Moreover, safety is an important issue that the engineers keep at priority as people’s lives are at stake. Aluminium body is the preferred material in sports cars With car manufacturers around the world trying to pack in more punch with their offerings, the fight for better fuel efficiency and safety of the automobiles has intensified. With cutting edge designing and engineering capabilities, car manufacturers have carefully selected the materials and technolog...

Did we just chance upon a source for clean fuel powered by water & aluminium?

Source: Getty A team of researchers at the US Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground Maryland made a chance discovery when they poured water on a new aluminium alloy they were testing. It began to give off hydrogen immediately! Exciting enough? Well, let us rewind this recent ground-breaking discovery and allow it to sink in slowly as you read on. Hydrogen stands at number one on the periodic table; it is the most abundant element in the Universe. It is found in the sun and most of the stars and the planet Jupiter is composed mostly of hydrogen. On Earth, Hydrogen is prevalent in the form of plenteously available chemical compounds such as hydrocarbons and water. Some see hydrogen gas as the clean fuel of the future – generated from water and returning to water when it is oxidised . Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are increasingly being seen as ‘pollution-free’ sources of energy and are now being used in some buses and cars. Alth...

Aluminium - Enriching A Billion Lives

Search This Blog