Water contamination by industrial metals such as aluminum is becoming a serious problem. Considered a heavy metal, ingestion should be avoided at all costs and is the reason why many citizens have opted for home water filters as a reliable means to protect themselves and their families. And yes, the berkey removes aluminum from the water.
Aluminum was first discovered in the early 1800’s, but was very expensive to use at $90/pound. In 1886, Charles Martin Hall developed an inexpensive method of extracting the metal from the ore resulting in a price drop to $2/pound. What ensued was an explosive increase in aluminum utilization across all industries becoming the third most produced metal today.
However, aluminum has brought with it some problems. A study by D.R.C. McLachlan showed a disturbing relationship between the amount of aluminum in drinking water and Alzheimer’s cases. He concluded that if the aluminum level in the public water had been kept below 100 micrograms/liter, 25 percent or more of the cases could have been prevented. Other studies make similar claims, yet there seems to be a continuing scientific debate as research into the aluminum-Alzheimer connection and its associated risk degrees goes deeper.
The negative affect of industry on our health has been know for decades, but as time passes, knowledge continues to be gleaned as to just how much risk we've placed our bodies at. Studies are revealing that most heavy metals, when ingested over longer periods of time, will adversely affect our health. Especially susceptible and damaged by these metals are the nervous system and organs. Small levels of exposure can be tolerated, but as heavy metals accumulate in the body, a disharmony begins to develop. This disharmony can turn into disease, body disorders, and cancer.
Aluminum solubility has relative dependency with the PH of the water, becoming more soluble at high and low PH levels. For instance, when the PH is less than 4.5, solubility rapidly increases and can be absorbed by the body much easier. The most common compounds of aluminum, aluminum oxide and aluminum hydroxide, are both insoluble, but other compounds such as aluminum sulfate is water soluble and is considered more dangerous as it leeches into our water supplies.
The connection between aluminum in the water and Alzheimer’s is alarming enough to motivate each of us to act. Step one for the general population should be to find a quality water filter to filter their drinking water. Whether you get your water from a well or a municipal supply, aluminum will surely be present but will hopefully be at very low concentrations. Most cities set a maximum allowable level of 50 and 200 g/L but the only way to guarantee protection is pursue further water filtration at the point of use, your home.
One technique is to distill your drinking water but this removes valuable minerals such as potassium and magnesium while also stripping out the taste. We recommend a comprehensive water filter like the Berkey Water Filter that uses a combination of various filtration media that are able to remove 99.1% of the aluminum in the water. The Black Berkey filters that come standard with each counter top water filter system do this for a very low cost averaging approximately 2 cents per gallon. Since concentrations of this metal have not been shown to have any benefit for the body, the more we remove, the better off we are!
