Blood and urine aluminium concentrations were studied in industrially exposed workers using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Welders and workers making aluminium powder and aluminium sulphate had higher concentrations in blood and urine than non-exposed referents. Workers in the electrolytic production of aluminium had higher urine but not blood concentrations than the referents. ...

Uncertainties exist over the glomerular filtration of aluminium and virtually nothing is known about its segmental handling along the nephron. The present study has used micropuncture, combined with electrothermal atomic absorption spectroscopy, to determine directly the aluminium content of glomerular filtrate and of late PCTs (proximal convoluted tubules) and early distal tubules in anaesthet...

Until 1990 biokinetic studies of aluminium metabolism and biokinetics in man and other animals had been substantially inhibited by analytical and practical difficulties. Of these, the most important are the difficulties in differentiating between administered aluminium and endogenous aluminium-especially in body fluids and excreta and the problems associated with the contamination of samples wi...

Phytotoxicity of aluminium is one of the most serious problems in limiting plant growth in acidic soils. A number of plant species exhibit inheritable aluminium tolerance by the secretion of organic acids which is highly specific to aluminium stress and localized to the root apices. Organic acids have been considered to play an important role in the detoxification of aluminium, both externally ...

Serum aluminium concentrations and biopsy specimens of bone were examined in 56 patients with end stage chronic renal failure receiving maintenance haemodialysis. Deposits of aluminium in bone specimens were often associated with low bone formation with or without osteomalacia. Serum aluminium concentrations of greater than 3.7 mumol/l (10 micrograms/100 ml) indicated a high probability of depo...

BACKGROUND Beryllium exposure occurs in aluminium smelters from natural contamination of bauxite, the principal source of aluminium. AIMS To characterize beryllium exposure in aluminium smelters and determine the prevalence rate of beryllium sensitization (BeS) among aluminium smelter workers. METHODS A population of 3185 workers from nine aluminium smelters owned by four different aluminiu...

In this study, two new Ni/La-Al2O3 catalysts were prepared by a sol-gel method, with different aluminium precursors (aluminium triisopropoxide and aluminium nitrate). The catalysts were characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray fluorescence (XRF), X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET specific surface area, and particle size analysis (PSA) techniques. The BET results showed that the par...

Human activities have circumvented the efficient geochemical cycling of aluminium within the lithosphere and therewith opened a door, which was previously only ajar, onto the biotic cycle to instigate and promote the accumulation of aluminium in biota and especially humans. Neither these relatively recent activities nor the entry of aluminium into the living cycle are showing any signs of abati...

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder of unknown aetiology. It is suggested to involve both genetic susceptibility and environmental factors including in the latter environmental toxins. Human exposure to the environmental toxin aluminium has been linked, if tentatively, to autism spectrum disorder. Herein we have used transversely heated graphite furnace atomic absorption s...

There are unexplained links between human exposure to aluminium and the incidence, progression and aetiology of Alzheimer's disease. The null hypothesis which underlies any link is that there would be no Alzheimer's disease in the effective absence of a body burden of aluminium. To test this the latter would have to be reduced to and retained at a level that was commensurate with an Alzheimer's...