Southern Water Hampshire

[engine driver]

I noted an article concerning Southern Water . I was interested having spent a year living and no doubt consuming the water provided by this company . I saw the Test River many times . It seems that SW are being taken to court for dumping diesel into the river. I can remember this river as a beautiful crystal clear river and I can remember seeing a large Pike swim past . Living in a country where sharks are always on your mind, I thought this fish could no doubt inflict a nasty bite.
Anyway back to my time in Hampshire , if I remember correctly SW where guilty of dumping a large quantity of Alluminium into the tanks that supplied water for the citizens .............I am told that Alluminium in some form can be the cause of early dementure , no joke !!!!!

 

[Tringa]

A link between Aluminium and dementia was well publicised at the time but appears to be based on dubious research,

This is from the Alzheimer's Society

Aluminium

In 1965, researchers found that rabbits injected with an extremely high dose of aluminium developed toxic tau tangles in their brains. This led to speculation that aluminium from cans, cookware, processed foods and even the water supply could be causing dementia. The ability of this high dose aluminium to induce tau tangles, increase amyloid levels and contribute to the development of plaques has been shown in laboratory experiments on animals.

Importantly, these results were only seen with extremely high exposures that far exceed the levels that can enter the body through food or potentially through contact with aluminium cookware.

Since this study was reported, much research has been done on the relationship of aluminium and Alzheimer's disease. As yet no study or group of studies has been able to confirm that aluminium is involved in the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Aluminium is seen in the normal, healthy brain. It is not clear how aluminium is getting into the brain from the blood. The levels currently seen in peoples brains hasn't been shown to be toxic but an ageing brain may be less able to process the aluminium. Although aluminium has been seen in amyloid plaques there is no solid evidence that aluminium is increased in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. No convincing relationship between amount of exposure or aluminium in the body and the development of Alzheimer's disease has been established.

Aluminium in food and drink is in a form that is not easily absorbed in to the body. Hence the amount taken up is less than 1% of the amount present in food and drink. Most of the aluminium taken into the body is cleaned out by the kidneys. Studies of people who were treated with contaminated dialysis have shown an increase in the amount of aluminium in the brain. This was believed to be as a result of inadequately monitored dialysis which then led to encephalopathy related dementia. Methods of dialysis have since been improved and doctors are better able to predict and prevent this form of dementia.

One large recent study did find a potential role for high dose aluminium in drinking water in progressing Alzheimer's disease for people who already have the disease.

However, multiple other small and large scale studies have failed to find a convincing causal association between aluminium exposure in humans and Alzheimer's disease.

Link - https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/about-dementia/risk-factors-and-prevention/me...

Dave

 

[Box Brownie]

I noted an article concerning Southern Water . I was interested having spent a year living and no doubt consuming the water provided by this company . I saw the Test River many times . It seems that SW are being taken to court for dumping diesel into the river. I can remember this river as a beautiful crystal clear river and I can remember seeing a large Pike swim past . Living in a country where sharks are always on your mind, I thought this fish could no doubt inflict a nasty bite.
Anyway back to my time in Hampshire , if I remember correctly SW where guilty of dumping a large quantity of Alluminium into the tanks that supplied water for the citizens .............I am told that Alluminium in some form can be the cause of early dementure , no joke !!!!!

I have a vague memory of an incident in the news some years back of a chemicals delivery driver who arrived at a treatment plant and unsupervised (no personnel on site!) put his delivery into the wrong tank!!!!

That chemical was an Aluminium based one, it took some time to notice the mistake but IIRC the population that it served has been health monitored since then. I think this was in the West Country area somewhere (Dorset, Somerset, East Devon ???)

Whether that was SW Water I can't recall. But the lapse was the water company's poor site management & oversight!

 

[engine driver]

Thank you Tringa ,I recall this incident ,it was in 1990 and I often wondered what the outcome was . From memory ,and how true this ,apparently a tanker arrived at the treatment plant with a load of Alluminium whatever and was told by someone to deposit in that tank!!! Of course the story went that the tank in question was treated water ready for consumption, how true ?
Thank you for your informative details.

I have a vague memory of an incident in the news some years back of a chemicals delivery driver who arrived at a treatment plant and unsupervised (no personnel on site!) put his delivery into the wrong tank!!!!

That chemical was an Aluminium based one, it took some time to notice the mistake but IIRC the population that it served has been health monitored since then. I think this was in the West Country area somewhere (Dorset, Somerset, East Devon ???)

Whether that was SW Water I can't recall. But the lapse was the water company's poor site management & oversight!

Thank you Box Brownie for verifying my memory, I am sure it was SW. .