Copper

[gregz]

I wonder if handling copper is good.

Greg

[passerby]

Just wash your hands after you handled it. I don't like the smell copper leaves on your hands when it starts reacting with sweat, so it's easy to remember to just go wash them right away after you're done. There's probably not one metal out there handling which, then immediately handling food, is exactly *good*.

[nestork]

If there were a direct link between Alzheimers and the ingestion of, or even handling of, copper, then there would be a disease called "plumber's disease" just like there is "black lung" for coal miners and mesothelioma for people who worked with asbestos.

In order to make a solder joint, you have to sand the oxide layer off the copper pipe and brush out the oxide layer on the fitting. That creates copper dust particles that are small enough to hang in the air for hours.

How many plumbers do you know that wear a dust mask when they sand copper pipe? I don't know of any.

If what that report suggests is true, they could easily prove it be comparing the rate of Alzheimers amongst retired plumbers with that of the general population. I doubt they'll find any correlatioin because plumbers often bring their sons into their business, and if there was a strong correlation between Altzheimers and copper, then many of the plumbing companies in major cities where the family owned company has been in business since the 1950's would have noticed the prevalence of Alzheimers in their family.

[The Daring Dufas]

Every fracking thing in our environment is toxic. Too much water can kill you, too much sunlight can kill you, too much oxygen or CO2 can kill you, eating too much of anything can kill you. The human body is in a fight for its life every minute of the day because so many things and microscopic critters are trying to kill it. I spoke to some doctors about aluminum in pans and antiperspirants leading to Alzheimer?s disease. One physician told me that the most exposure to aluminum is from antiperspirants rather than aluminum cooking pots and pans. So there is so much conflicting research on the toxicity of anything in our environment that it makes you want to live in a bubble but wait, is the bubble made from anything that's toxic? O_o

TDD

[Tomsic]

I remember reading articles about famous restaurant chefs. Some of them said, proudly, that they "only cooked in copper pots". On our farm, my mother made jam, apple butter, boiled sweet corn and rendered lard in a large copper pot over an open fire. That was 65 years ago. No one in our family of 5 was afflicted with Alzheimers or dementia as they aged.

Tomsic

[Ed Pawlowski]

I think there may be something to it. I was told that if I touch my pipe too much, I'll go blind. I'm already wearing really strong glasses.

[Stormin Mormon]

Freon ... ozone hole....

carbon dioxide.... global warming.....

. Christ>

[Frank]

Absolutely. The speculation is bullshit. Epi studies on tradesmen go on all the time. If copper were a problem, it would have shown up long ago.

[The Daring Dufas]

I was thinking that copper is used to make the full metal jacket on bullets, I suppose copper in that form can be quite toxic along with the lead component of the bullet? O_o

TDD

[Tomsic]

Nope. Just a data point.

Tomsic

[gregz]

There may well be other factors that enter the picture, including genes.

Greg

[Tubby McFatass]

Don't worry about Alzheimers, the McSugarFood is going to kill us first.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to McManBoobs so I can have a couple McBigButt happy meals and wash them down with a 64oz high-fructose Croaka-Cola.

(That'll give my liver something to do!)

[Dean Hoffman]

One of the biggest killers is malaria. The ban on DDT might be the most harmful of the over reactions to environmental concerns.

[The Daring Dufas]

Yea, The Silent Spring is one where you hear only the buzzing of insects and no laughter of children. O_o

TDD