The Age of Aluminium

[mick silver]

The Age of Aluminium Bert Ehgartner (https://thoughtmaybe.com/by/bert-ehgartner/) 2013 1:30:00
Aluminium is everywhere—beer cans, tinned food, cooking pans, computers, pens, cosmetics; and many medications, including most vaccinations. Though what do we know about this material? The Age of Aluminium profiles people whose health has been seriously impacted by unwitting exposure to aluminium; along with research exploring how aluminium as a known neurotoxin relates to the growing epidemic of chronic illnesses and disabilities such as breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, allergies, and autism. Aluminium mining and manufacturing have also created cataclysmic environmental problems in several parts of the world, as we see the devastating effects of aluminium mining in South America, and environmental disasters in Hungary and the UK. What are we doing with this material? And what can we do now to avoid the continued impacts on our lives and the natural world? https://thoughtmaybe.com/the-age-of-aluminium/

[Cebu_4_2]

Looks like a good family type movie, will watch after I finish closing all my windows.

[ximmy]

just think we should remember:

http://sam.davyson.com/as/physics/aluminium/siteus/uses.html

Aluminum is used excessively in the modern world, and the uses of the metal are extremely diverse due to its many unusual combinations of properties (http://sam.davyson.com/as/physics/aluminium/siteus/section2.html). No other metallic element can be used in so many ways across such a variety of domains, like in the home, in transport, on land, sea and in air, and in industry and commerce. Aluminum's uses are not always as obvious as they may seem, with sizeable proportions of manufactured aluminum and aluminum oxide going into other separate processes...

Aluminum's natural resistance to corrosion (http://sam.davyson.com/as/physics/aluminium/siteus/corrosion.html) aids it in its role in packaging (and many other areas), as unlike in iron, aluminum oxide forms a protective and not destructive layer. Aluminum is also completely impermeable, (even when rolled into extremely thin foil), and also doesn't let the aroma or taste out of food packaging, the metal is non-toxic and aromaless itself too, making it perfect for packaging.....

Since 1945 aluminum has been used in high voltage electrical transmission, in place of copper as it is the most cost efficient power line material. With copper many heavy, and expensive support structures needed to be used, yet using aluminum fewer lighter and cheaper supports have to be used. This saves huge amount of money...

Buildings made with aluminum are virtually maintenance free due to the strength of aluminum's corrosion resistance (http://sam.davyson.com/as/physics/aluminium/siteus/corrosion.html). Due to this and its light weight it is used in cladding, windows, skylights, gutters, door frames, and roofing. Insulated aluminum cladding is also very thermally efficient, keeping homes warm in winter, and cool in summer....

Aluminum also has further end uses in products used more readily around the home. Like all the other uses they relate specifically back to the properties (http://sam.davyson.com/as/physics/aluminium/siteus/properties) of the metal. The material is used to make saucepans, kitchen utensils, golf clubs, tennis bats, indoor and outdoor furniture, fridges, and toasters....

[expat4ever]

No doubt it has some great uses and is an awesome product. Just wish they didnt have to destroy the planet to refine it. I also dont think it belongs in products that go in or on the human body.

[Dogman]

I wonder if any study's have been made comparing cultures before aluminum was just a background non concentrated metallic mineral to and since the metal was first refined, which at that time it was exotic to today where it is common.

The health and what diseases were common then and now?

There is concern that is still debated about Alzheimer disease and aluminum, but what other conditions diseases may be but not discovered or linked to this metal?

Because the increasing use of it over the years in its refined form and because of increased use of the metal over the last 3 or so generations of exposure?

Questions that need answers are still open to explanation.

Personally when it comes to cooking or anything that comes into contact with what I eat or drink, I avoid anything and everything I can that has aluminum in it.

[Glass]

its pretty bad stuff. I generally avoid it, although I didn't for most of my life. Probably the past 10 years I've made an effort to avoid it. Not sure PET is any better but glass is good, I hope.

We have a big ALcoa plant here. Situated right next to the main industrial centre housing burbs. Where all the heavy industry is. They had to strip mine the area to get the bauxite out. I recall they bussed us down on a school excusion. Drove us around and showed us all the reforestation they were doing. At the time I think the science of rehabilitation was fairly immature. Being a farm boy I kept looking at what they were re-growing and wondering to myself why anyone would do it with blue gums. Answer, easy to plant, grows quick, suckers very easily and before you know it the wounds are all covered up. They are trees, no one knows the difference, everyone is happy. Nothing particularly wrong with blue gums, they provide shelter for animals and they burn like wood burns. I would have planted something a bit more economically beneficial myself but I was not paying for it....... directly.

Actually I'm not sure its blue gums they plant. I notice that they found a way to turn their reforestation program into a charitable tax dodge with the Ten Million Trees program. Nicely done.

[palani]

I've had a couple of experiences at aluminum plants. One was re-controlling a perchlor recovery system. Perchlor is a dry cleaning fluid they use for removing impurities from the surface of aluminum sheet. They would suck the fumes off the sheet and pass them thru a charcoal filter. Then occasionally they would backflush the filter with steam and recover the fluid. Still left the saliva with a slick feel and I would have hated to have been an operator.

Another experience was re-controlling a kiln at another plant. In the kiln the oxygen level was controlled. A couple weeks after the re-control I got called in on a Sunday because the kiln was uncontrollable. They had it figured out by the time I got there. Seems they were running a load of Sara Lee pie plates thru and this product had bits of crust stuck to it. The crust was combustible and there is no way to control oxygen under this condition.

This same plant I observed a fork truck driver with a 20 foot long beam with a drag on the end running it into a furnace of molten aluminum and dragging out the dross. His next run into the furnace left the front tires of the fork lift in molten aluminum and dross which started the tires on fire. He just kept operating. Would have made a nice photo.