While I realize that Paul is truly concerned about the problems of fluoride and aluminum in driking water I think he is much more concerned than is warranted. As far as fluoride is concerned the hazards are much lower than the benefits. The use of fluoride in drinking water has led to a vast improvement in dental health. This has been attested in study after study. It is not clear that there is a significant hazard, at the level maintained in city water systems.
I also sometime in the past year saw a report that many children are having dental health problems because they are drinking bottled water instead of city water. The city water is better for their health, unless the city has an extremely poor water system. Then the hazards are from other things than the fluoride.
As far as aluminum is concerned. I just checked
Aluminum Toxicity at Medscape. There is a long article about aluminum toxicity. The overall thing that I came away with is that almost all aluminum toxicity cases occur in people with impaired renal capacity. Mostly it appears that they get the aluminum from various procedures involving injections. One of the main ones is dialysis with a media that includes aluminum. I think most sources of dialysis materials are aware of this now provide aluminum free materials. Orally ingested aluminum is normally rejected by the intestines. So concerns about aluminum in water are probably much overstated.
Bill Gill
