High levels of aluminum were found in five patients with autism spectrum disorder. It's been stated that the amount of aluminum administered in vaccines is equal or less than the amount in found in food over a several month period. However, this disregards the fact that while 100% of the aluminum in vaccines enters the blood immediately, less than 1/4 of 1% of food based aluminum is absorbed, with the rest being excreted in feces and urine.
The discovery of aluminum (Al) in quantities unexpectedly high in brain tissue in five patients with autism spectrum disorder [1] has immediately imposed to us the question: from where has this aluminum come? We live in what one leading researcher on the chemistry of aluminum has called "the Aluminum Age" [2] and concerns about the toxicity of ingested Al were expressed over hundred years ago [3] long before it became as widely used as it is today. Al is the third most abundant element in the earth’s crust and occurs naturally in the environment, foodstuffs, and drinking water [4]. It is also used in: processed foods, materials and articles such as, Al-containing food packaging, Al foils, cooking utensils and baking trays. It has long been assumed that dietary Al is the main risk source of exposure to biologically available Al. Under physiologic conditions intestinal absorption of aluminum is impossible since biometals (Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn, Mo, Cr) and toxic metals (Pb, Hg, Ni, Cd,) are absorbed exclusively in their 2+ state. Aluminum as a trivalent under physiologic conditions cannot be absorbed. Trivalent Al can be absorbed through the intestinal mucosa only in the cases of mucosal damage (infection, inflammation, intoxication as was the case in 1988 in England [5]).
In the paper of Mold et al. [1] the strangest and most intriguing fact is that the highest concentrations of aluminum were measured in the youngest person. The boy was only 15 years old (case A4). Generally accepted claim that dietary aluminum is the main source of exposure to aluminum, inevitably raises the question: how is it possible that in the course of only 15 years of life, this boy "absorbed" such amount of aluminum and deposited it in his brain? On the other hand the boy in that age probably did not use creams containing aluminum, antiperspirant sprays, nor shaved. He also could not have been present in1988 in Camelford, Cornwall (UK). At the age of 15 he could not be a worker in the aluminum industry where he would be exposed to aluminum dust and fumes. Even less it was likely that this boy lived near the place where aluminized grenades exploded! We also do not believe that the boy was a cosmonaut and he travelled in interstellar spaces where divalent aluminum is located. In the work of Mold et al. [1] the year of birth of persons shown in the work is not indicated. We can only assume that the 15-year-old boy was born around the year 2000.
Given all of the above under normal, usual, physiological conditions the most important, the most regular and most predictable even by the law legislated access of aluminum into the human body is through vaccines. According to the vaccination schedule which was established in 2000 in the USA, by the age of 18 months, approximately 4425 μg of aluminum is parenterally delivered into the human body through vaccines [15]. After 2005 with the introducing of new vaccines, the quantity of adjuvant Al has increased up to 4925 μg [15].
Aluminum neurotoxicity has been shown in experiments on mice [16]. Aluminum toxicity has been shown even in one clinical study in which 182 infants were treated with intravenous injections of nutritional formula that contained different quantities of aluminum [17] but received significantly less aluminum than the infants receiving aluminum via vaccines. Recently it was shown that another metal i.e. mercury is also neurotoxic for children even in much less quantities in comparison with aluminum [18]. Toxic effects of Al can be assigned to its physical and chemical properties. Owing to its 3+ charge Al attracts negatively charged ions and electrons but because it cannot transition to other oxidation states besides 3+, Al is not a direct component in any redox reactions but may participate indirectly in Fenton reactions. Moreover, the small ionic radius and the high charge of Al3+ are its important properties by which this metal can exert its toxic activity. The Al ion (0.054 nm) is roughly the same size as the ferric (Fe3+) ion (0.065 nm) and much smaller than magnesium (Mg; 0.072 nm) and calcium (Ca) ions (0.100 nm). Thus, in biological systems, Al can effectively replace these essential biometals in many enzymatic reactions [19,20].