Blood Aluminum Levels in a Psychiatric Outpatient Population. High Aluminum Levels Related to Memory Loss

Aluminum is the most abundant metal and the third most abundant element in nature. Combined with oxygen and silicon it occurs as feldspar. KASJ308, mica, KISi04, and Kaolin, H2AI2SJ208H20. Although aluminum salts have been used for various purposes since ancient times the free metal was not isolated until 1827 when Wohler reduced aluminum chloride with potassium. Commercial utilization of free aluminum was not feasible until the development of the electrolytic refining process of Hall in 1886. Since that time the use of aluminum has increased at a phenomenal rate and with it, man's exposure. It has generally been felt in the past that aluminum is well tolerated and generally harmless. Experiments which have attempted to demonstrate that aluminum is an essential element in man have been unsuccessful. Lifetime studies in rats by Schroeder and Mitchener (1975) have demonstrated that 5 ppm of Al in drinking water was innocuous as measured by median life span, longevity, incidence of tumors, glucose, uric acid and cholesterol levels.