Quote from nitro:
I take articles like that very seriously. Another possible problem is using deoderant with aluminum in it. Another potential problem is the flouride that is added to our water.
I don't know if these things are myths or not, but I would not be surprised to learn that they are in fact very harmful over the course of someones life.
nitro
By far the largest ingestion of aluminum, for most people in the US, is due to baking powder. It's harmless.
Although Alzheimer victims have been found to have higher than average Al content in there brains, current thinking is that the higher levels are only incidental to Alzheimers. Alzheimers victims have incorrect, beta amyloid folding of proteins in the brain and current research is centered on that.
Small, low level, exposure to mercury metal or amalgams also seems to be harmless. Mercury is eliminated through the kidneys, unlike lead which tends to persist as insoluble phosphate. Many millions have amalgam fillings and mental acuity and health has improved dramatically since amalgam began to be used for fillings. Drawing the standard junk science conclusion from that fact, one concludes that mercury makes people brighter and healthier. Exposure to toxic levels of either mercury vapor, which will not occur at room temperature even if one works daily over a pool of mercury metal, or exposure to toxic levels of organic mercury compounds is quite a different matter.
The most careful study of lead exposure, the results of which were published in the NIH Journal some years ago, showed that the safe levels were considerably above what is thought. The study has been ignored. Everyone who grew up in the age of leaded gasoline had, and has, what by today's standards are very high lead levels. There is no evidence that that generation, on average, was mentally deficient compared to prior or more recent generations. There is some evidence to suggest that Einstein, Feinman, and Fermi were not especially dull witted. Drawing the typical junk science conclusion from that fact, one concludes that exposure to lead causes mental brilliance.
The hypothesis that lead exposure may result in delayed mental deficiency is interesting, and perhaps worth further study. Since in the popular press the levels of significance associated with results from controlled studies are seldom stated, one has to wonder what those levels were in the present study of delayed effects of exposure to heavy metals. One would certainly want to consider that before sinking a lot of money into further study.