"Don K" wrote in
:

"paghat" wrote in message
news



Man-made aluminum & aluminates MIGHT have some involvement in the
development of alzheimers disease, though years back when Science
Digest did a whole issue about it, looked like only about one out of
ten researchers thought it much likely.

Aluminum is an element and strictly speaking, is not something that
is man-made.

Arguably the stuff that comes to you is man-made (in the same way a wooden
chair is man-made) as it needs to be processed from bauxite and other
struddlishish stuff that I don't recall going by the name Hall-Herholtz
process (or just Hall if you don't like simultaneous discoveries).

[snip]....So while the science
proving or disproving a source of explanation for these deposits has
failed to clarify the issue, in the meantime anyone with aluminum
kitchen pots & utensils should toss them immediately;

What credible authority recommends that? NIH doesn't.

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/external/faq/alum.htm

That's all nice and good if you trust the government. The same government
that said you can't get anthrax in the mail and spent beaucoup bucks
fumigating government offices and didn't get around to giving el cheapo
masks or gloves to postal personnel until later, but I digress.

I agree it seems unlikely that you'll get aluminum toxicity from cans or
cookware, it's more likely the stuff you eat and is passed as 'safe'. I'm
a little wishy-washy on the subject, from my little knowledge of chemistry,
the binding energy of aluminum oxide is quite high and anodizing it causes
the protective layer of aluminum oxide to cover the entire surfaces (no
significant gaps), so getting some aluminum out of that should be quite
difficult, but then I'm reminded of the all the corrosion I've seen on
aluminum storm windows and think, why take the chance?

I wouldn't want aluminum in the garden, first because it would be,
like plastic, an eyesoar, for I like things to look as woodsy-natural
as possible.

Considering that the earth is 8.1% aluminum, I'd say it would be
entirely fitting to have some aluminum in the garden.

If my garden is already 8.1% aluminum I don't see why it would be necessary
to add more.

-- Salty