Aluminium in drinking water linked to Alzheimer’s, study of 7,000 Scots finds

Higher levels of aluminium and fluoride in drinking water are related to the onset of dementia, according to a ground-breaking study of thousands of Scots. Research by scientists at the University of Edinburgh to examine environmental factors that might cause dementia found that the people who lived in areas with higher levels of aluminium in the drinking water were more likely to die from the illness. 
The study involved around 7,000 individuals born in 1921 who undertook an intelligence test in 1932 which was the forerunner of the historical 11-plus exam. A total of 1,972 out of 6,990 participants in the study had developed dementia by 2012. A north/south divide in Scotland in the quality of drinking water was also revealed, with the North East coming out worst and the Borders and South West coming out on top. Coagulants such as alum (aluminium sulphate) are used to trap impurities in raw water by binding them together to form particles before they are filtered out. Fluoride occurs naturally and is not added to the water supply in Scotland. Researchers say there is some evidence that it increases the human absorption of aluminium..............