Watch Out: Using Aluminium Utensils May Harm Your Child's IQ

We're always on a lookout for our kids - making sure that they eat well, study hard and have successful careers. While trying to make sure that we take care of everything, there's one simple or surprising thing that we may have missed. If this new study is to be believed you should avoid cooking and serving food in aluminium cookware as it can hamper your child's IQ.

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A recent report published in Total Environment's journal studies the ill-effects of consuming meals cooked in aluminium vessels on kids. According to the study, when food gets in contact with aluminium, harmful agents find their way inside the body. This can harm children's mental health as well as their Intelligence Quotient. Traces of cadmium and lead, when consumed through food, can damage kidney, harm brain and may lead to various cardiovascular and mental ailments besides other health issues. According to the report, in most cases, aluminium cookware is sourced from scrap metal derived from industrial waste like cans, computer and other electronic parts that are deemed severely harmful for human health.

"Lead and cadmium exposures from regular use of these pots will significantly reduce IQ and school performance among children, and contribute to millions of deaths due to cardiovascular disease," lead study author Jeffrey Weidenhamer, Ashland University was quoted by ANI.

As ANI reported, samples of aluminium cookware were collected from ten developing countries and studied by the experts. Close to one-third of the collected sample was found laced with hazardous lead content. The team carried out its investigation by boiling acidic solutions in the cookware for a couple of hours. This facilitated measuring the content of lead present in the cookware. Besides lead and cadmium, other harmful agents released by the sample vessels included aluminium and arsenic.

Close to 31% of the collected cookware samples contained significant amount of lead while aluminium levels were at least six times higher than the level recommended by WHO.

Experts also associated the possibility of consuming food cooked in aluminium pots with rampant lead poisoning in parts of Africa and Asia. Reportedly, lead exposure from the use of easily available aluminium cookware poses a greater threat to human health as compared to other sources of lead exposure. Despite the ban on lead in gasoline, research suggests elevated blood lead levels in people living in parts of Asia and Africa.