Your Thoughts On Aluminum?

So Ive heard abit about aluminum being linked to alzheimer's disease and was wondering if that effected anyones take on using it.

"Myth 4: Drinking out of aluminum cans or cooking in aluminum pots and pans can lead to Alzheimer’s disease.

Reality: During the 1960s and 1970s, aluminum emerged as a possible suspect in Alzheimer’s. This suspicion led to concern about exposure to aluminum through everyday sources such as pots and pans, beverage cans, antacids and antiperspirants. Since then, studies have failed to confirm any role for aluminum in causing Alzheimer’s. Experts today focus on other areas of research, and few believe that everyday sources of aluminum pose any threat."

http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_myths_about_alzheimers.asp


I honestly Didn't like aluminum even before I heard of this. When I was little I owned a Stainless steel messkit that was given to me by someone and then bought a aluminum messkit to replace it later on. The Aluminum one was so pliable it was a dented piece of bent metal in no time and since then I have stuck to stainless steel.

So what is your take? Have you removed aluminum from your camping cookware? Would you use Aluminum for your emergency gear only since its weight and cost effectiveness? What do you prefer in alternatives in Aluminum?

Aluminum, specifically aircraft aluminum is UL and cheaper than titanium. In fact right now I am drinking from my GSI Halulite Minimalist cup made of a aluminum blend. At dinner last night with my aircraft aluminum long handled spoon. I drink from aluminum cans because I can recycle them.

I can't live my life based on scientific studies that are inconclusive or considered 'suspected to' or 'linked to' any of the hundreds of illnesses that humans can get at some point in their life from a lot of different things. If there is a definitive position on something being harmful like say smoking 3 packs a day for 20 years, then I'll start considering changes.

A glass of wine a night will kill you one week, will make you smarter the next.

Cell phones will give you cancer one week and stimulate brain function the next.

Exactly. There are studies to support that just about anything we put into our bodies is dangerous in the proper amount. I wouldn't worry about it. Especially since most aluminum items used in the food and drink industry are coated in some way (aluminum cans, for example, are internally coated).

I mean, my grandfather smoked a pipe and worked in painting with lead based paint, and he lived to the ripe old age of 95 where he died peacefully in his sleep. My father worked with asbestos pipe for 20 years, and he's still just fine....and those are items that are known to be extremely life threatening. If I worried about all the stuff that 'might' be dangerous, I might as well just crawl into a corner and die.

Eggs are good one week next week eggs are bad. Yeah I know how that goes.

A question that you made me wonder now tho is how do you tell the quality of aluminum in something you purchase that isnt labeled with these details?

One of the things I had heard about aluminum was cooking acidic foods in them, like cooking homemade spaghetti sauce in a cast aluminum pot.

But who knows? The ones who create some of these taxpayer-paid 'studies' often have some axe to grind, and the ones who deny them have their money invested in producing the materials.

And, of course, most studies (esp with health and medicine) focus on a teeny-tiny facet of something, and totally ignore how the substance fits into the whole picture.

Sue

Titanium alloy is well suited for lightweight mugs, pots and pans. I don't have a problem using hard anodised aluminium either, but I would stay away from the softer pure aluminium utensils. Both HAA and Ti are both lightweight durable and tough.
For kitchen use I use food grade stainless steel, cast iron and HAA.


Remember the day when experts said smoking tobacco posed no threat to human health and a little radium toothpaste was good for you.

My camping cookware (original question) gets used so seldom that it wouldn't be much of a health hazard even if it were made of LEAD!

So I don't worry about aluminum camping stuff.

Daily usage kitchen stuff is stainless or glass.

In a long-term survival situation at the house the kitchen pots and pans would still be used though over barbecue grill or propane stove.

I just bought 3 mugs that are softer then heck Aluminum. At 2.50$ per I figured a car kit or backup uses for them.

I reckon with all the stuff I've done that's bad for me, I died a long time ago and don't know it.

I also learned that studies can be made to tell you what the sponsors want them to tell you.

Echoing what others have already stated, aluminum is not on my list of worries -- especially in regard to short-term survival situations and camping. I keep in my car an aluminum Kelly Kettle and a few other things. Just about every day I drink one or more Diet Cokes out of aluminum cans.

At home, I cook with cast iron.

There are some bargains to be had for a full sized 2 person HAA cooksets, such as the Coleman Fyrestorm HAA Cookset available for about $10

http://www.coleman.com/coleman/ColemanCom/detail.asp?CategoryID=31009&product_id=8552-305

Wow! That's cheap, especially for HAA.

In terms of cooking, aluminum is actually a pretty good bet.

Ti is light and strong (and expensive), but a) since it's so strong they usually make the cookware pretty thin and b) it's not a great conductor of heat. Ti ware often = burnt spots. If you want to go fast and light and you're just boiling water to rehydrate foods, Ti is for you (if you've got the bucks).

Stainless steel is cheap and lasts for ever. This is great for loaner gear, gear for groups like Scouts (where it'll take a beating), gear that goes in a car kit (or whatever) that'll be there when you need it even though it's been kicked around for years. Down side is that it's heavy and stainless steel is a pretty poor conductor of heat which can lead to burnt spots. Of course in a survival situation, maybe "finesse" cooking isn't your highest priority.

Regular aluminum is cheap enough and conducts heat well, but dents pretty easily, especially if it's thin. I've got an aluminum cook pot that my dad bought some time in the late 50's/early 60's that's still going strong, but it's a bit heavier gauge aluminum than most of what I see out there today. This is a good option for someone of modest means where weight is a concern.

For my money, hard anodized aluminum is the way to go. It's pretty tough, much less prone to denting than plain aluminum, plenty light (my aircraft aluminum spoon weighs less than if it were made of Ti), and conducts heat well.

HJ

Is this a item no longer in production thus cut in price?

The whole aluminum scare turned out to be simplistic, popular hysteria that grossly misinterpreted a complex disease.

For regular camping and house use, I've gone to stainless steel because it doesn't change the taste of my food as much as aluminum. (Red wine, though, picks up a nasty taste in any metal cup except enamel.)

I keep aluminum pots in my car kits because it's lighter and much more efficient at heat transfer than stainless. (Take a sip from an aluminum cup full of boiling tea and you'll understand.)

If I were hiking ultralight I'd go with aluminum, both for its weight and its thermal efficiency. And, listening to an aluminum pot "hiss" loudly on the stove would be a trip down memory lane. Though I still wouldn't like the way it changes the taste of the tea.

One of these days I'd like to try a hard anodized aluminum pot.

For taste I'll take glass or titanium . . my daily coffee cup is double wall titanium. I don't recall having any aluminum -- not by fear, just works out that way.

I'm not too sure, you may need to contact Coleman to check to see if the Coleman Cookset is an end of the line product. The Fyrestorm line wasn't a particularly successful product line for Coleman but was being manufactured in some of the highest spec materials. There really isn't much that can go wrong with a pot or a pan though especially one without a handle, but for $10, this would normally be the cost of just the HA pot lifter in many outdoor high street retailers. Seems to be a good product at a very good price for a lightweight durable HAA cookset.

Honestly Certain things arent worth me chasing around for. That 10$ cookset might cost me a tank of gas to find at any store if its end of the line and a online purchase isnt something I make to common. The Current pot I own is SS and I think its just the Beez Kneez (even tho I havent used it) For its size and weight.

Nice. I assume it has a slot for a Kensington lock?

The classic white vitreous enamelware camping mug. Wow, they're a blast from the past. I forgot that they are still manufactured even today.

http://www.cookability.biz/enamelware-camping-mug/b_3697.htm?SRC=GB1

Kensington lock? So far no problems . . looks like a cheap used metal cup, most peeps just don't know . .

Have we been camping together? Sounds like my breakfast

For years I used standard aluminum camp cookare cause it was cheap and light. Then switched to stainless, and now use stainless mostly and some titanium. If I could afford it, I would go all titanium. Its an emotional attachment.

I think people need to take journalists interpretations of science with a grain of salt. Journalists are good at making stories interesting and persuasive. They are far less effective at expressing the nuances of science in general, research in specific, and the tool used to interpret results, statistics.

Two rules to keep in mind:
Beware of interpreting less good as bad, and slightly bad as a major threat. Life is 100% fatal, always. Nobody gets out of here alive. Yes, a fifth of whiskey a night and four pack of cigarettes a day will kill you ... eventually.

It also pays to remember that any research that requires hundreds of thousands of dollars and several years to get results is not dealing with anything that might be termed an immediate deadly threat. If Phil eats the purple berries and falls over dead you definitely want to avoid the purple berries. If Phil tells you that after five years of intense research he found out that the purple berries people have been eating for fifty years might be connected with a problem you keep eating the berries but keep an ear open for the second and third study to confirm the linkage. When a majority reputable scientist comes out and says that after many good studies the preponderance of the evidence is that the purple berries are linked to some issue you start weighing how much you really like them.

After reading several reports linking aluminum with Alzheimer's I gave up my two rolls a day foil chewing habit. Now I find out I may have been premature. LOL.

In reality none of my daily use pans had exposed aluminum. A few I used regularly were aluminum but coated so even at the height of the scare I wasn't worried. I kept using my bare aluminum camping pot. I figured in the scale of things a few score meals with infinitesimal amounts of aluminum included weren't a big risk. I figure it has been in commercial use since the 1880s when it was considered a precious metal and more expensive than silver. Royalty had aluminum dinnerware as a status items. After better than 1130 years of use if aluminum was highly toxic the effect would be obvious. That it isn't tells you that if there is any negative effect it is subtle.

Heck, I think people need to take scientists' interpretations of science with a grain of salt.

-Blast, seriously.

A grain of salt? How about some grains of black powder?

HJ

Teflon coated Aluminum Products are Awesome!

PHD Comics: Science News Cycle

Until you burn one . . .

... and kill all the pet birds in your house.

(no teflon coatings here)

That pretty much explains it.

HJ