GreenFacts: Alzheimer, cancer : scientific assessments on health risks from aluminium exposure in food and dermatology products.
A short GreenFacts overview of three health assessments related to aluminium exposure and aluminium products :
1) the Scientific Opinion of the Panel on Food Additives, Flavourings, Processing Aids and Food Contact Materials (AFC) of EFSA adopted in 2008;
2) the statement of EFSA on the Evaluation of a new study related to the bioavailability of aluminium in food ;
3) the Risk assessment by the French Agency AFSSAPS related to the use of aluminum in cosmetic products.
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/pub/2157.htm
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/754.pdf
http://www.afssaps.fr/var/afssaps_site/storage/original/application/ad548a50ee74cc320c788ce8d11ba373.pdf
1. In summary
Based on the the available scientific data, the EFSA [1] Panel does not consider exposure to aluminium via food to constitute a risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease despite the fact it has been suggested that aluminium could be implicated in the aetiology of Alzheimer and other neuro-degenerative diseases. EFSA also considers unlikely aluminium to be a human carcinogen at dietary relevant doses.
The EFSA Panel established a Tolerable Weekly Intake of 1 mg aluminium/kg body weight/week. Recently, EFSA evaluated a new study (2011) on the oral absorption of a various aluminium compounds and considered that the results did not provide any additional information that could modify their conclusions reached in 2008. EFSA also considered that the Tolerable weekly Intake of 1 mg/kg body weight/week is likely to be exceeded in a significant part of the European population The French Agency AFSSAPS
[2] evaluated the exposure and the potential health effects related to
dermal exposure. Their conclusion was that there are insufficient data to establish a clear relationship between the use of underarm aluminum-based antiperspirants and breast cancer. In this context, AFSSAPS recommends to restrict the concentration of aluminum in cosmetic products at 0.6% and not to use cosmetics containing aluminum on damaged skin.