Page 20 - Spring 2019 Journal

Surviving in the Aluminum Age
By Christopher Exley, PhD
We are living in the Aluminum Age.1 In our school lessons on human history, we learned all about the Iron Age and the Bronze Age, but will school- children in the future be taught about the Aluminum Age? I use this term to describe the period from the late nine- teenth century—when we discovered how to make alumi- num metal and its salts cheaply and efficiently—until the present day, when myriad aluminum-containing products
pervade every aspect of our lives.
The advent of the Aluminum Age heralded the modern world we know
today. Aluminum is a feature of our food, our drinks, our medicines, our cosmetics and our environment. So, in a “Gordon Gekko” sort of way, we might say that aluminum (like greed) is good! However, our expectation with all “good things,” including those containing aluminum, is that they also be safe—at least, as they say, when exposed “in moderation.”
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Wise Traditions SPRING 2019