>From noted thought control agent, The Washington Post:

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052300366_pf.html>

Tin, Aluminum, Chromium

By Robert L. Wolke
Wednesday, May 24, 2006; F06


Tinfoil has a shiny side and a dull side. Why is this? My co-worker
says you should put the shiny side down when covering something in the
oven. This doesn't seem plausible to me. What are the facts?

First, a brief bit of history.

In the 19th century, Thomas Edison invented a phonograph machine, in
which a sound-driven vibrating needle impressed grooves into a cylinder
covered with a thin foil of the soft metal, tin. In the 20th century,
tinfoil was being widely used as a wrapping material for foods and
drugs. By the middle of the century, tinfoil had been replaced almost
completely by thin foils of a different metal called aluminum. Yet many
people persist in calling aluminum foil "tinfoil." We chemists get
annoyed at things like that. Get with it, folks! This is the 21st
century!

Now, about aluminum foil. Aluminum foil is made by rolling sheets of
98.5 percent pure aluminum metal between pairs of polished, lubricated
steel rollers. Successive passes through the rollers squeeze the foil
thinner.

Household aluminum foil is so thin (0.0005 of an inch) that the rollers
can't handle it without tearing it. The final rolling is therefore done
on a sandwich of two sheets, face to face. The outer surfaces emerge
with a finish as smooth as the rollers, while the two face-to-face
inner surfaces emerge with a matte finish. Hence, a shiny side and a
duller side. When you use the foil, it makes no difference which side
is up, down or sideways.

I bought some Reynolds Wrap Release, a nonstick aluminum foil. It works
great as an oven pan lining. Even dripping pizza cheese won't stick to
it. What is the nonstick coating? Is it Teflon? Can it be used safely
at high temperatures?

Reynolds (and its parent company, Alcoa) brought Release to the market
in 2002. They will not say what the coating is, except that it is
"effective as a nonstick surface and safe for food contact." Reynolds
says it is safe at any temperature, including for grilling, and doesn't
contain Teflon.

I have heard that cooking in aluminum pots and pans can be dangerous.
But what if they're made of hard-anodized aluminum?

Aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth's crust. Widely
distributed in soil, plants and water, including our food and drinking
water, it is impossible to avoid. According to Health Canada, that
nation's public health agency, about 95 percent of an adult's daily
intake of aluminum comes from food. And less than 1 percent of all
ingested aluminum is absorbed by our bodies.

The suspicion of a relationship between aluminum and (take your choice)
Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's or Parkinson's disease has been floating
around for about 20 years. The brains of some Alzheimer's patients have
been found to contain abnormally high concentrations of aluminum, but
nobody knows whether that is a cause of the disease or a result of it.

Because Alzheimer's is a chronic disease that develops over a long
period of time, the long-term ingestion of aluminum in drinking water,
which is relatively easy to monitor, should be a logical way to search
for a correlation. And yet, epidemiological attempts to link aluminum
in drinking water with Alzheimer's disease have been either
inconclusive or contradictory.

There is little doubt that whatever aluminum leaks into our foods from
cookware is a small fraction of the aluminum we ingest through normal
eating, drinking and breathing on our aluminum- pervaded planet.

As for hard-anodized aluminum, the surface has been subjected to a
process that builds up its natural coating of oxide. Aluminum oxide is
a very hard, nonreactive substance that forms an impenetrable coating.
So the food never actually touches aluminum metal.

I'm shopping for stainless steel cookware. Some brands brag that
they're made of 18/10 stainless steel, while others say they're 18/8.
What's the difference?

The numbers are the percentages of chromium and nickel, respectively,
in the alloy, so the 18/10 contains 2 percentage points more nickel
than the 18/8. More nickel gives the steel a brighter surface and
greater corrosion resistance, but the difference is very small. Both
are top-quality stainless steels. If the type of steel isn't specified,
it might be 18/0, a lower quality containing no nickel at all. The
surfaces will be comparatively dull.

Did I say there's chromium in our frying pans? Shades of Erin
Brockovich!

In 1993, Brockovich, a legal file clerk, sparked a successful $333
million lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for contaminating
the drinking water of Hinkley, Calif., with hexavalent chromium. Since
the 2000 movie with Julia Roberts in the title role, I have been asked
several times whether stainless steel cookware is dangerous because of
the chromium it contains. The answer is no. Chromium metal and
hexavalent chromium are as different as a metal bedspring and a mineral
spring.

Chromium is a corrosion- resistant metal, formerly used to electroplate
bumpers and glitzy trim on automobiles. It's not used for that purpose
anymore, because it's too valuable a metal to be squandered on
automotive bling.

Hexavalent chromium, on the other hand, is one of the nonmetallic
chemical forms of the element chromium, along with bivalent chromium
and trivalent chromium. They are formed when chromium or chromium oxide
dissolves in acids. Equating hexavalent chromium to chromium metal is
like equating the eating of iron-rich foods to noshing on nails. As
long as you don't dissolve an old car bumper (or a stainless steel
frying pan) in sulfuric acid and drink it, there's no problem.

Robert L. Wolke (http://www.robertwolke.com) is professor emeritus of
chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh. He can be reached
.

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

-bwg

> wrote in message
oups.com...
>From noted thought control agent, The Washington Post:

That's funny. As if all newspapers don't have an angle. You must be a noted
idiot.

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
> > wrote in message
> oups.com...
> >From noted thought control agent, The Washington Post:
>
> That's funny. As if all newspapers don't have an angle. You must be a noted
> idiot.

Sorry. I really didn't have you in mind, in particular, when I adressed
my posting to the tinfoil hat brigades. But if the hat fits...

Respectfully submitted,
-bwg

On 7 Jun 2006 09:22:04 -0700, wrote:

>>From noted thought control agent, The Washington Post:
>
><http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/23/AR2006052300366_pf.html>
>
>Tin, Aluminum, Chromium
>
>By Robert L. Wolke
>Wednesday, May 24, 2006; F06
>snipped
"As long as you don't dissolve an old car bumper (or a stainless steel
frying pan) in sulfuric acid and drink it, there's no problem."

D!OH, to late gulp.

> wrote in message
ps.com...
>
> JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
>> > wrote in message
>> oups.com...
>> >From noted thought control agent, The Washington Post:
>>
>> That's funny. As if all newspapers don't have an angle. You must be a
>> noted
>> idiot.
>
> Sorry. I really didn't have you in mind, in particular, when I adressed
> my posting to the tinfoil hat brigades. But if the hat fits...
>
> Respectfully submitted,
> -bwg
>

I'm referring to the comment about the Washington Post. Perhaps I was wrong,
but it sounded like the 138 millionth replay of what Rush Limbaugh instructs
his sheep to say about the Post and other newspapers which have the nerve to
suggest that readers wake up.

In article om>,
wrote:

> JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
> > > wrote in message
> > oups.com...
> > >From noted thought control agent, The Washington Post:
> >
> > That's funny. As if all newspapers don't have an angle. You must be a noted
> > idiot.
>
> Sorry. I really didn't have you in mind, in particular, when I adressed
> my posting to the tinfoil hat brigades. But if the hat fits...
>
> Respectfully submitted,
> -bwg


Drinks are on me, Barry! LOL!
--
-Barb
<http://jamlady.eboard.com> Updated 5/29/2006, What They Did For Love
"If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all."

OK. I apologize. I was playing with words because of the nearness, in
my own mind, of those who believe, despite contrary evidence or, at
lest, lack of confirmatory evidence, that aluminum cookware causes
Alzheimers to the tinfoil hat brigades and to those who believe that
the newspapers are part of a vast left- or right-wing conspiracy to
brainwash the unwashed masses's brains.

By the way, I am far from believing, with Rush, that the WaPo is part
of the VLWC. It's far too right wing for me to believe anytihng like
that...

-bwg
And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged... (Ruth 1:1)

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
> > wrote in message
> ps.com...
> >
> > JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
> >> > wrote in message
> >> oups.com...
> >> >From noted thought control agent, The Washington Post:
> >>
> >> That's funny. As if all newspapers don't have an angle. You must be a
> >> noted
> >> idiot.
> >
> > Sorry. I really didn't have you in mind, in particular, when I adressed
> > my posting to the tinfoil hat brigades. But if the hat fits...
> >
> > Respectfully submitted,
> > -bwg
> >
>
> I'm referring to the comment about the Washington Post. Perhaps I was wrong,
> but it sounded like the 138 millionth replay of what Rush Limbaugh instructs
> his sheep to say about the Post and other newspapers which have the nerve to
> suggest that readers wake up.