Health

Myths and Facts About Aluminum and Human Health

Aluminum is all around us. As the most abundant metal in the earth’s crust, fully 8 percent of the ground
beneath our feet is made up of aluminum. We all consume small amounts of aluminum constantly – in the food
we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe.

As a result, the scientific community has explored for decades the potential human health effects of ordinary
environmental exposure to aluminum. The mainstream scientific consensus is clear -- there is no evidence that
normal day-to-day use of aluminum products – whether in food, cookware, drinking water, antiperspirants,
medicines or cosmetics – causes any adverse health effects.

Myth: Exposure to aluminum causes Alzheimer’s Disease

Fact: Aluminum is not linked to Alzheimer’s disease, the cause (or causes) of which is unknown. In the words
of the Alzheimer’s Association, “The research community is generally convinced that aluminum is not a key
risk factor in developing Alzheimer's disease.”
The World Health Organization has also concluded that “there is no evidence to support a primary causative
role of aluminium in Alzheimer's disease.”

Myth: Aluminum present as an active ingredient in some antiperspirants leads to breast cancer.
Fact: Aluminum is not, nor has it ever been, classified as a carcinogen. Further, there is no convincing
scientific evidence that aluminum-based antiperspirant use contributes to the development of breast cancer.
Less than 0.02% of aluminum in contact with skin is taken up by the body, the rest being excreted in a very
short time.
The American Cancer Society states “There are no strong epidemiologic studies in the medical literature that
link breast cancer risk and antiperspirant use, and very little scientific evidence to support this claim. In fact, a
carefully designed epidemiologic study of this issue published in 2002 compared 813 women with breast
cancer and 793 women without the disease. The researchers found no link between breast cancer risk and
antiperspirant use, deodorant use, or underarm shaving.”

Myth: Consuming aluminum in antacid pills can cause health problems.

Fact: Aluminum is poorly absorbed by the body. This means that most (at least 99.9%) of aluminum ingested
from food and water merely passes through the digestive tract and out of the body. Several studies have found
no adverse effects for those who have ingested even large quantities of aluminum-containing antacids from
antacids.
Additional reassurance regarding aluminum’s safety can be derived from the fact that frequent users of oral
antacids may consume very high quantities of aluminum (e.g. up to 1000 mg/day), several orders of magnitude
higher than the intake from ordinary food and water intake, yet no adverse health effects have been
demonstrated.

The Center for Disease Control’s Agency for Toxic Substance & Disease Registry notes, “An extremely small
amount of the aluminum found in antacids [is] absorbed [through ingestion].” And further, “The FDA has
determined that aluminum used as food additives and medicinals such as antacids are generally safe.”

Myth: It is dangerous to cook with aluminum pots and pans.

Fact: The Food and Drug Administration studied this issue in the early 1980s and reported no safety concerns
from using aluminum cookware. More recently, the Center for Disease Control’s Agency for Toxic Substance
& Disease Registry reported that “foods cooked in aluminum pots are generally considered to be safe.”
An independent study by America’s Test Kitchen in 2012 found that “In lab tests … tomato sauce … cooked
in an aluminum pot for two hours and then stored in the same pot overnight was found to contain only .0024
milligrams of aluminum per cup.” For the sake of comparison, according to the FDA, “the daily aluminum
intake for man from all dietary sources can range from 10 to 100 mg per day.” Consumption at this level is
considered safe.

Myth: The aluminum salts used to clean municipal drinking water pose a danger to human health.
Fact: Virtually every municipal water purification system in the world uses aluminum salts to remove
impurities and provide safe, healthy and accessible drinking water. The global public health benefits enabled
by these systems are numerous and have prevented innumerable water-borne diseases.
Health Canada spent 10 years and millions of dollars studying this issue and concluded: “There is no
consistent, convincing evidence that aluminum in drinking water causes adverse health effects in humans, and
aluminum does not affect the acceptance of drinking water by consumers or interfere with practices for
supplying good water.”

Myth: Aluminum contained in certain vaccines make them unsafe.

Fact: Aluminum salts have been used to improve the immune system’s response to vaccines for more than 70
years. Most of the small amount of aluminum used in the vaccinations is quickly expelled by the body. About
half of the aluminum is gone in 24 hours; three-quarters is eliminated in two weeks and virtually all of it
disappears within three years.
There are recent reports of a neurologic disease called macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) suspected to be
caused by injections of aluminum-containing vaccines. The role of aluminum in the mechanism of this
disorder is unclear. The only known undesirable effects that are attributable directly to aluminium salts
contained in vaccines are possible local inflammatory reactions, which in some cases are due to the speed of
the injection of the vaccine or to insufficient agitation of the vial.

In 2008, the World Health Organization’s Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety
(GACVS) stated: “From the most recent evidence, there is no reason to conclude that a health risk exists as a
result of administration of aluminium-containing vaccines. Neither is there any good scientific or clinical basis
for recommending any change in vaccination practice.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has concluded that the use of aluminum in vaccines is safe.

Reference: https://www.aluminum.org/resources/electrical-faqs-and-handbooks/health

It’s found in nature

Naturally occurring aluminum is the third-most-abundant element on
Earth, so it really is everywhere. Because it’s present in the soil, it can be
found in certain foods, such as spinach and tea. It’s also used in a
number of industrial processes that bring it into close contact with
humans. Although many studies of aluminum exposure have focused on
drinking water — utilities often use aluminum salts to clarify and purify
their water — it is also found in cookware and food packaging, in
antacids, antiperspirants and a handful of medications, and in some
processed foods. That makes teasing out people’s exposures to aluminum
over a lifetime, and the effect of those exposures, “very hard to do,” Perl
says.
It’s no surprise, then, that 30 years of studies on the aluminum-
Alzheimer’s link have yielded conflicting results.

Reference: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/does-aluminum-in-pans-and-
antiperspirants-lead-to-alzheimers-disease/2013/05/03/e2726998-ae75-11e2-98ef-
d1072ed3cc27_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.68af2c4eb99e