A1 + fluoride = Bad mix for cooks?

Aluminum's known neurotoxic effects have put the metal on a list of suspicious character (SN: 10/1/83, p.213). Furthermore, several studies last year found that aluminum compounds can be released from metal utensils during cooking. Now, experiments in Sri Lanka suggest that this leaching is "dramatically enhanced" by water containing fluoride, in levels normally used in municipal fluoridation.

In a letter published in the Jan. 15 NATURE, scientists at Hantana's Institute of Fundamental Studies and The University of Ruhuna say that water with 1 parts per million (ppm) of fluoride frees nearly 200 ppm of aluminum when boiled 10 minutes in aluminum cooking pots. That is 1,000 times the aluminum leached by nonfluoridated water. Prolonged boiling further raises the aluminum concentration to about 600 ppm. The rate of dissolution is affected by water and food acidity.

COPYRIGHT 1987 Science Service, Inc.

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