Does anyone know if there are any negative health effects from bathing in water that has been heated in an aluminum container?

-- Doug Shutes (toadshutes@yahoo.com), March 05, 2000

Answers

Response to Aluminum in bathing

Interesting question Doug. I've read quite a bit about not cooking in aluminum, never about anything like this. I suppose you could do a library or web search on cooking with aluminum, and decide if the evidence against aluminum sounds like you should avoid it.

I don't think there would be any problem myself. Ingesting is one thing, absorbing is something entirely different. Plus you're adding soap, a surfactent (sorry about the spelling), which would further discourage any aluminum that did migrate into the water from landing on and being absorbed by the skin. Any open wounds could pick up some, but I don't know that there would be all that much aluminum in the water to begin with. You usually protect that sort of thing anyway. And yes, there are some natural body openings that would be submerged if you're sitting in a tub of water, but they tend to be naturally protected, a very small target for a very small amount of aluminum in a large amount of water, and I'd think at least some of the aluminum would be removed by, well, using those parts. Remember, ingestion and absorption are different. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), March 06, 2000.

Response to Aluminum in bathing

I got rid of all my aluminum pots and pans years ago. Now I use only stainless steel and glass. As a nurse, I can tell you a lot of things are absorbed through the skin. Some medications are even given that way. Some that come to mind are nitroglycerine ointment to prevent chest pain, nicotine patches and hormones. How much aluminum would be in the water is debatable and how much of it your skin would absorb is also debatable but why chance it?

-- barbara (barbaraj@mis.net), March 06, 2000.