aluminium, is it safe?

[Rabbitsmacker]

hi all, i know this has been discussed before but i'm still unsure. i read through a previous thread and it wasn't conclusive, so i thought i would canvas some opinions. also, i'm not a chemist, and that sort of thing goes straight over my head, just interested in people views.

i was going out on a day hike with a mate, he was using a sigg bottle, obviously a popular choice. i was filling up my 44 pattern water bottle, which is alu, and he came out with 2 comments,
"i like the design"
"is it safe?"

now the last bit i passed of with the usual stock answer, "don't be so silly, of course it is, army used them for years!"

that got me thinking for part of the day about whether it actually was safe!? the army have gradually phased them out, and now only the mess tins remain as alu kit, the bottles are now plastic, and the cups stainless. do they know something we don't?
is it cost? survivability?
the US scrapped metal bottles decades ago also, but i not sure if the cup is stainless? the dutch use a stainless version also.


so is it safe???? does leave a funny taste in the contents sometimes. what do you think?

 

[johnboy]

Drink out of a plastic bottle and BPA 'll get ya

Drink out of an Aluminium bottle and you'll end up with Alzheimer's

Don't drink and you end up with Dehydration...

Cheap Chinese Stainless steel has harmful amounts of lead in it...

So on and so forth....

I think most evidence these days points to the link between Aluminium in normal everyday amounts and Alzheimers as being disproven..

My 2 cents...

 

[Shewie]

That's the thing, nobody knows for sure.

What was your mates Sigg made from if it wasn't ally ?

 

[apj1974]

The alzheimers society has the following:

http://alzheimers.org.uk/site/scrip...?categoryID=200137&documentID=99&pageNumber=1

to summarise, don't worry - the stress from the worry will probably kill you before aluminium would even get a look in!

 

[listenclear]

I try to stay clear of aluminium as much as possible. The occasional use whilst out camping is nothing to worry about but when you add up alu cans, anti-persperant and alu foil it starts to be more of a concern for me. It's not the alzheimers thing that worries me too much (as that seems to be inconclusive) but the other effects of the metal roaming about the tissues.
Sure, worrying about it is probably worse for you but I just try and give it a miss as much as possible.
So to sum up - i will probably die from PBA's first....

 

[Rabbitsmacker]

lol, yeah he's a gear freak, and reckoned the sigg was 'safe' alu and coated inside, are they? it did make me wonder. but alu would surley be banned if it had any ill effects.

 

[ged]

BPA ... Alzheimer's ... lead ...
My 2 cents...

Johnboy has a point. Even the 2 cents will probably leave traces of cocaine on your fingers.

But I still prefer PET bottles for drinking water. They're strong, light, flexible, they'll survive if the contents freeze (and you can still get it out), you can cut them up to do outlandish things with them, you can use them as firelighters (although I haven't yet tried to make a lens with one), and they're more or less free so you don't even have to wash them.

My main concern with Sigg bottles is that I've had a couple corrode rather badly, one actually failed with several pinholes through the base. It had contained only water. Not a big deal if they just contain water unless your kit all got wet and you're in a survival situation, but if one leaked fuel it could be dangerous.

The jury is still out on aluminium in food. I don't think that the amount that you'd ingest from occasional use of aluminium bottles as water containers would be important. People have been using aluminium kettles and saucepans in their daily lives for many decades and we don't seem to have seen a huge surge in dementia as a result. Boiling water will dissolve much more of most things than cold water so they're probably at greater risk than you are. To be on the safe side I avoid putting acid foodstuffs like fruit juice in aluminium containers. There aren't many very alkaline foods but that could be just as bad.

 

[John Fenna]

lol, yeah he's a gear freak, and reckoned the sigg was 'safe' alu and coated inside, are they? it did make me wonder. but alu would surley be banned if it had any ill effects.

It could be that I am cynical but it seems to me that there are many things that are more harmful than Alu that have not been banned (cheap booze, ciggies, cars to name a few) because they either prove too useful to society (cars) employ too many people in their production for the governments to support if a ban made them illegal or simply pull in too much tax revenue for any goverment to be able to afford a ban!
How many jobs rely on producing alu for the food/cooking sector?