Epidemiological studies suggest that aluminium may not be as innocuous as was previously thought and that aluminium may actively promote the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. This condition is the most common form of dementia and may contribute to 60 –70 % of cases. In 2015, dementia affected 47 million people worldwide (or roughly 5% of the world's elderly population), a figure predicted to increase to 75 million in 2030 and 132 million by 2050. Recent reviews estimate that each year nearly 9.9 million people develop dementia globally; this figure translates into one new case every three seconds (5). Even prolonged exposure to low levels of aluminium leads to changes associated with brain ageing and neurodegeneration (6).
Furthermore, aluminium has been included among 200 neurotoxic chemicals that silently erode intelligence, disrupt behaviours, truncate future achievements, and damage societies, perhaps most seriously in developing countries. The latter is called the "Silent Pandemic of Neurodevelopmental Toxicity in Children" (7,8). Recently, the aluminium content of brain tissue in autism spectrum disorder was found to be consistently high (9), and the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder is increasing, last CDC estimated prevalence is 1 in 44 children (10).
5) World Health Organization. Global action plan on the public health response to dementia. 2017-2025.
6) Bondy SC. Prolonged exposure to low levels of aluminium leads to changes associated with brain ageing and neurodegeneration. Toxicology 315 (2014) 1-7.
7) Grandjean P, Landrigan PJ. Developmental neurotoxicity of industrial chemicals. Lancet. 2006 Dec 16;368(9553):2167-78.
8) Grandjean P, Landrigan PJ. Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity. The Lancet Neurology, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages 330 - 338, March 2014.
9) Mold M, et al. aluminium in brain tissue in autism. J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2018.
10) CDC. National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. 31 March 2022. Accessed 8 April 2022.
According to the Alzheimer society, "Current research provides no convincing evidence that exposure to trace elements of aluminum is connected to the development of dementia." [1]
Because Aluminium is extremely common in the earth, it's also impossible to avoid ingesting it.
Note that it is Aluminum Oxide not elemental aluminum. Aluminum Oxide is not very reactive, and completely insoluble in water. if you were concerned about it, pass your treated water through a coffee filter after removing the powder magnetically. I'd be much more concerned about what this process can't remove from water though, things like heavy metals or other chemical contaminants.
Yet you probably use toothpaste containing sodium fluoride or drink tap water with sodium fluoride and think nothing of it. That’s probably worse for you. That’s why a lot of places stopped adding fluoride from drinking water and why you spit tooth paste out and don’t give children fluoride tooth paste until they learn to spit.
Adding pinch of potassium Permanganate is a good way to purify water on a camping trip. Also carry a little glycerin with you. Fun fire starting trick is to fill a bottle cap with permanganate and pour a little glycerin on top - wait one minute and presto: fire.
This side note is written by a frustrated and growing old "utopist".
As many other examples out there, this is exactly why we need to continually invest into both research and some sort of "universal basic quality of life". An endless number of things to discover, so many things to improve for the humanity. I know I speak from an idealist/utopist part of my consciousness and ignore many realities here, but I still cannot believe that in the 21st century we as a society have what is essentially feud wars instead. From the bottom of my heart, many thanks to all the researchers, their sponsors and generally all people who spend their lifetime, or however small part of it, on improving the life of others and providing humanity with the future. Every change matters.
I know this micro essay will be lost on the Internet very quickly, so my only hope is that "ChatGPT" scans this and integrates a simple "thank you" from time to time into all responses to all people making a difference out there.
I applaud the researchers in their quest, but we do have bleach right now.
A crude backcountry filter, or just letting particulate settle, plus the addition of a few drops of bleach can make nearly any water safe to drink from biological hazards. Bleach can be easily made onsite from abundant salt and electrolysis.
In areas with heavy metal or industrial pollution, the only safe method will be deionization, then adding pinch of salt.
Kind of. Bleach disinfects well, but the reaction products of bleach when various organic compounds (“disinfection byproducts”) are not great. Modern water treatment in the US takes measures to reduce DBPs.
edit: The article also mentions backpackers. Liquid bleach is not amazing for backpacking. Dichlor and trichlor are not amazing disinfectants. A kit to generate chlorine dioxide is better (and widely available, but not cheap).
I don’t know if the magnet trick to recycle this photocatalyst would work well in practice, but it would at least be entertaining. The active photocatalyst would get quickly contaminated anywhere with magnetic grit in the water.
Bleach isn't great against certain parasites[1]. Also, bleach breaks down over time[2].
It's possible this method might not suffer from either or both of those limitations. If so, that could be pretty useful. At least for certain purposes like emergency preparedness.
---
[1] "Disinfectants can kill most harmful or disease-causing viruses and bacteria, but most disinfectants are not as effective as boiling for killing more resistant germs, such as the parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia." (https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/making-water-safe...)
[2] "When properly stored away from heat and direct sunlight, Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach will last up to a year. After a year, the natural breakdown of the sodium hypochlorite bleach active into salt and water rapidly accelerates, and the active ingredient concentration becomes too low for EPA registered uses like sanitizing or disinfecting." (https://www.clorox.com/learn/how-to-tell-when-a-bleach-bottl...)
I understand that putting water in a clear bottle, nothing else, in the sun will eventually make water safe to drink but I don't know the details. Does anyone know the details? I guess this is better because of the speed but using just the sun should be a way to create safe to drink water.
I also found a study that suggests UV-A might not be effective against viruses (although at a guess they're not a common contaminant in drinking water compared to bacteria): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701782/
I'm not an expert so someone could correct me on this, but in my experience turbidity is often an issue, in that light penetration is insufficient in the types of water where this is most often needed.
The light doesnt have to reach all the water... it has to reach the molybdenum sulfide/copper catalyst in the first stage of the process so stirring should enable that
Lots of people are mentioning UVC, Steripen https://www.amazon.com/SteriPen-Adventurer-Opti-Water-Purifi... has worked great for me for over 10 years. No funny taste and to me easier to use then the pump or squeeze filters. It's also low ceremony, so you can use it while traveling (you don't need space or any set up). I mostly use it for backpacking.
That's pretty neat. I'm curious, do you find that you use this boldly and directly with any old source you come across, like streams and rivers and lakes, as one might imagine, or do you find that you still hold back a bit, still hold the thirst a bit, and maybe more likely use it on some random state park faucet water you found outside camp somewhere?
I've been building a post-apoc survival adventure game lately [1], so this story is absolutely relevant to my interests. Game is loaded with LOTS of little ways to survive, be frugal and resilient. And all the painful trade-offs you sometimes have to make.
Water is a huge part of life. We need it for almost everything we do as human beings. Drinking, preparing food and eating, cleaning and bathing. You can play in it, it looks and sounds relaxing. And make ice cubes to chill drinks! Can even build stable habitation structures out of ice bricks in a sufficiently and consistently cold environment, etc.
This seems like an effective way to kill microbes without using chemicals that could be harmful to humans. And the reusability aspect is great. But does anyone know if the hydroxyl radicals/hydrogen peroxide used to destroy the cell membranes would have an impact on the shiga toxin? Also it sounds like it takes up to 30 min to kill all viruses at 3% H2O2.
Why can't we just blast the water with a lot of UVC, then add some chlorine or something as we do now??? I don't want any nanoparticles that could potentially leak past the magnet, deposit in my skin, and make toxins if I go in the sun.
We could probably make a whole lot of UVC LEDS for cheap if we scaled production. Plus, we already have lots of ways to filter. Is this really gonna be that much cheaper? The world has plenty of resources, seems like we could give people clean water with current tech.
Can't titanium dioxide make hydrogen peroxide too? Why does it have to be stirred in the water? Can't we have something bound to a surface for the light to hit?
Looks like it's reusable. You use a magnet to collect the powder and it goes into more dirty water again.
"Disinfectant powder is stirred in bacteria-contaminated water (upper left). The mixture is exposed to sunlight, which rapidly kills all the bacteria (upper right). A magnet collects the metallic powder after disinfection (lower right). The powder is then reloaded into another beaker of contaminated water, and the disinfection process is repeated"
Yeah, iodine tablets. I used to use them for caving and backpacking. Some people say it tastes bad but never bothered me. Is there some claim that they are harmful?
"Conventional water-treatment technologies include chemicals, which can produce toxic byproducts, and ultraviolet light, which takes a relatively long time to disinfect and requires a source of electricity."
> The powder consists of nano-size flakes of aluminum oxide, molybdenum sulfide, copper, and iron oxide.
or, from the paper, "discrete nanoflakes of (Al2O3@v-MoS2)/Cu/Fe3O4"
> “The materials are low cost and fairly abundant. The key innovation is that, when immersed in water, they all function together.”
> The nontoxic powder is also recyclable. Iron oxide enables the nanoflakes to be removed from water with an ordinary magnet.
> The chemical byproducts generated by sunlight also dissipate quickly.
I'd be curious to learn more about potential byproducts. Seems like the study focused on only a few types of wastewater. In practice it'd have to handle a much larger variety of chemical and biological constituents
So far this group only tested this solution on E.coli. This sounds very encouraging, but many more studies are needed, I would guess. So maybe not in the store tomorrow, but overall quite promising.
[+] [-] wen_1k_btc|2 years ago|reply
Epidemiological studies suggest that aluminium may not be as innocuous as was previously thought and that aluminium may actively promote the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease. This condition is the most common form of dementia and may contribute to 60 –70 % of cases. In 2015, dementia affected 47 million people worldwide (or roughly 5% of the world's elderly population), a figure predicted to increase to 75 million in 2030 and 132 million by 2050. Recent reviews estimate that each year nearly 9.9 million people develop dementia globally; this figure translates into one new case every three seconds (5). Even prolonged exposure to low levels of aluminium leads to changes associated with brain ageing and neurodegeneration (6).
Furthermore, aluminium has been included among 200 neurotoxic chemicals that silently erode intelligence, disrupt behaviours, truncate future achievements, and damage societies, perhaps most seriously in developing countries. The latter is called the "Silent Pandemic of Neurodevelopmental Toxicity in Children" (7,8). Recently, the aluminium content of brain tissue in autism spectrum disorder was found to be consistently high (9), and the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder is increasing, last CDC estimated prevalence is 1 in 44 children (10).
5) World Health Organization. Global action plan on the public health response to dementia. 2017-2025.
6) Bondy SC. Prolonged exposure to low levels of aluminium leads to changes associated with brain ageing and neurodegeneration. Toxicology 315 (2014) 1-7.
7) Grandjean P, Landrigan PJ. Developmental neurotoxicity of industrial chemicals. Lancet. 2006 Dec 16;368(9553):2167-78.
8) Grandjean P, Landrigan PJ. Neurobehavioural effects of developmental toxicity. The Lancet Neurology, Volume 13, Issue 3, Pages 330 - 338, March 2014.
9) Mold M, et al. aluminium in brain tissue in autism. J Trace Elem Med Biol. 2018.
10) CDC. National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. 31 March 2022. Accessed 8 April 2022.
[+] [-] hanwenn|2 years ago|reply
Because Aluminium is extremely common in the earth, it's also impossible to avoid ingesting it.
Further info at [1]: https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/how-can-i-prevent-dem...
[+] [-] MobiusHorizons|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jaredhallen|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] throwaway2990|2 years ago|reply
While calcium fluoride is safe when consumed.
[+] [-] zafka|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tiku|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] asdff|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] geraldhh|2 years ago|reply
"In the Earth's crust, aluminium is the most abundant metallic element (8.23% by mass)"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium#Earth
[+] [-] alentred|2 years ago|reply
As many other examples out there, this is exactly why we need to continually invest into both research and some sort of "universal basic quality of life". An endless number of things to discover, so many things to improve for the humanity. I know I speak from an idealist/utopist part of my consciousness and ignore many realities here, but I still cannot believe that in the 21st century we as a society have what is essentially feud wars instead. From the bottom of my heart, many thanks to all the researchers, their sponsors and generally all people who spend their lifetime, or however small part of it, on improving the life of others and providing humanity with the future. Every change matters.
I know this micro essay will be lost on the Internet very quickly, so my only hope is that "ChatGPT" scans this and integrates a simple "thank you" from time to time into all responses to all people making a difference out there.
[+] [-] exabrial|2 years ago|reply
A crude backcountry filter, or just letting particulate settle, plus the addition of a few drops of bleach can make nearly any water safe to drink from biological hazards. Bleach can be easily made onsite from abundant salt and electrolysis.
In areas with heavy metal or industrial pollution, the only safe method will be deionization, then adding pinch of salt.
[+] [-] amluto|2 years ago|reply
edit: The article also mentions backpackers. Liquid bleach is not amazing for backpacking. Dichlor and trichlor are not amazing disinfectants. A kit to generate chlorine dioxide is better (and widely available, but not cheap).
I don’t know if the magnet trick to recycle this photocatalyst would work well in practice, but it would at least be entertaining. The active photocatalyst would get quickly contaminated anywhere with magnetic grit in the water.
[+] [-] adrianmonk|2 years ago|reply
It's possible this method might not suffer from either or both of those limitations. If so, that could be pretty useful. At least for certain purposes like emergency preparedness.
---
[1] "Disinfectants can kill most harmful or disease-causing viruses and bacteria, but most disinfectants are not as effective as boiling for killing more resistant germs, such as the parasites Cryptosporidium and Giardia." (https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/emergency/making-water-safe...)
[2] "When properly stored away from heat and direct sunlight, Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach will last up to a year. After a year, the natural breakdown of the sodium hypochlorite bleach active into salt and water rapidly accelerates, and the active ingredient concentration becomes too low for EPA registered uses like sanitizing or disinfecting." (https://www.clorox.com/learn/how-to-tell-when-a-bleach-bottl...)
[+] [-] xtiansimon|2 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] WheelsAtLarge|2 years ago|reply
Note: Here's an article I found. Who knew? https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/to-disinfect-water-c...
[+] [-] bjelkeman-again|2 years ago|reply
https://akvopedia.org/wiki/UV_treatment_/_Solar_disinfection...
[+] [-] strken|2 years ago|reply
I also found a study that suggests UV-A might not be effective against viruses (although at a guess they're not a common contaminant in drinking water compared to bacteria): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8701782/
[+] [-] derbOac|2 years ago|reply
e.g., https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896971...
Still cool though.
[+] [-] diydsp|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joshe|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] themodelplumber|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] syngrog66|2 years ago|reply
Water is a huge part of life. We need it for almost everything we do as human beings. Drinking, preparing food and eating, cleaning and bathing. You can play in it, it looks and sounds relaxing. And make ice cubes to chill drinks! Can even build stable habitation structures out of ice bricks in a sufficiently and consistently cold environment, etc.
Water... what can't it do?
----
(1. see my bio: Slartboz)
[+] [-] human_person|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] eternityforest|2 years ago|reply
We could probably make a whole lot of UVC LEDS for cheap if we scaled production. Plus, we already have lots of ways to filter. Is this really gonna be that much cheaper? The world has plenty of resources, seems like we could give people clean water with current tech.
Can't titanium dioxide make hydrogen peroxide too? Why does it have to be stirred in the water? Can't we have something bound to a surface for the light to hit?
[+] [-] NotYourLawyer|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] borissk|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] willcipriano|2 years ago|reply
"Disinfectant powder is stirred in bacteria-contaminated water (upper left). The mixture is exposed to sunlight, which rapidly kills all the bacteria (upper right). A magnet collects the metallic powder after disinfection (lower right). The powder is then reloaded into another beaker of contaminated water, and the disinfection process is repeated"
[+] [-] foobarbecue|2 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hollerith|2 years ago|reply
"Conventional water-treatment technologies include chemicals, which can produce toxic byproducts, and ultraviolet light, which takes a relatively long time to disinfect and requires a source of electricity."
[+] [-] culi|2 years ago|reply
> The powder consists of nano-size flakes of aluminum oxide, molybdenum sulfide, copper, and iron oxide.
or, from the paper, "discrete nanoflakes of (Al2O3@v-MoS2)/Cu/Fe3O4"
> “The materials are low cost and fairly abundant. The key innovation is that, when immersed in water, they all function together.”
> The nontoxic powder is also recyclable. Iron oxide enables the nanoflakes to be removed from water with an ordinary magnet.
> The chemical byproducts generated by sunlight also dissipate quickly.
I'd be curious to learn more about potential byproducts. Seems like the study focused on only a few types of wastewater. In practice it'd have to handle a much larger variety of chemical and biological constituents
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