Priority Substances List Assessment Report for Aluminum Chloride, Aluminum Nitrate, Aluminum Sulphate

Tables and Figures

Table 1: Physicochemical properties of aluminum chloride, aluminum nitrate and aluminum sulfate¹

Property	AlCl3	Al(NO3)3	Al2(SO4)3
Melting point	194°C at 527 kPa	73°C	decomposes at 770°C
Boiling point	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.
Sublimation	181°C	n.a.	n.a.
Decomposition	-	135°C	770°C
Solubility in water	reacts explosively with water 69.86 g/100 mL at 15°C2	63.7 g/100 mL at 25°C	36.4 g/100 mL at 20°C

^1.Taken from Perry and Green (1984); Budavari et al. (1989); ATSDR (1992); Lewis (1992).
^2.For AlCl₃·6H₂O.

 

Table 2: Production, importation, exportation and apparent consumption of aluminum chloride and aluminum sulfate in Canada for 1995 and 1996

	Amount (tonnes)
	AlCl33		Al2(SO4)3·14H2O
	1995	1996	1995	1996
Production	13 420	13 500	241 400	252 355
Importation	1 570	1 670	12 675	15 500
Exportation	5 890	5 900	7 500	7 060
Apparent consumption	9 100	9 270	246 575	260 795

^3.Includes PAC.

 

Table 3: Aluminum salts and aluminum (mixed results) releases reported by Canadian industries for 1996

Releases to	Amount (tonnes)
Air	38
Watercourses	8124
Wastewater treatment plants	305
Landfarming	317
Soil conditioning	70

 

Table 4: Sludge disposal practices for drinking water treatment plants using aluminum-based coagulants (mean for 1995 and 1996)

Disposal practice	Coagulant used (tonnes)	Number ofresponses	Sludge4 reported (tonnes)	% of total release
Agricultural spreading (landfarming)	4 839	5	1 691	0.3
Landfill	4 843	11	8 153	1.4
Lagoon	1 056	8	47 226	8.2
River	29 423	30	332 006	57.8
Sewer	5 750	31	184 755	32.2
Not specified	8 832	17	0	0
Total	54 741	103	574 0005	100.0

^4.Many DWTPs have reported equal amounts for sludge and coagulant used.
^5.Rounded to the closest thousand. M

Table 5: Estimated total and dissolved inorganic aluminum concentrations in receiving waters and effluents from selected drinking water treatment plants and pulp and paper mills

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Table 6: Neurological effects of orally administered aluminum salts on rats, mice and monkeys

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Table 7: Neurological effects of aluminum salts administered orally to rats and mice during gestation, weaning and/or postweaning

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Table 8: Analytical epidemiological studies of exposure to aluminum in drinking water and Alzheimer's disease or dementia

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Table 9: Estimated daily intake of total aluminum by the general population of Canada

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Table 10: Estimated daily intake of total aluminum from orally administered over-the-counter therapeutic products for those who use products sold in Canada containing aluminum compounds as active ingredients^6,7

Product type	Estimated daily oral intake (mg/kg-bw per day)8
	Toddlers (0.5-4 years)	Children (5-11 years)	Teens (12-19 years)	Adults (20-59 years)	Seniors (60+ years)
Antacids andadsorbents	ni	ni	ni	7.8-18	7.7-18
Cathartics andlaxatives	ni	ni	ni	12	12
Antidiarrheal agents	16-19	16-20	12-19	14-18	14-17
Local mucosal anesthetics (heart burn medication)	ni	ni	ni	12	12
Analgesics (bufferedaspirin)	ni	ni	ni	1.5	1.4-1.5

^6.Daily intakes were estimated from the manufacturers' `maximum recommended daily dose for a representative sample of products from each of the product types listed. Aluminum-containing products were identified from the Drug Products Database, and the ranges of concentrations of elemental aluminum in the product types listed were as follows: 6900-90 000 ppm for antacids and adsorbents, 11 000 ppm for cathartics and laxatives, 5500-110 000 ppm for antidiarrheal agents, 21 000 ppm for local mucosal anesthetics and 16 000 ppm for analgesics (Health Canada, 1999a).
⁷Available data from the National Population Health Survey indicate that 0.2% of the population (over the age of 12) surveyed stated that they had taken one antacid containing aluminum in the 2 days prior to being surveyed; 0.7% of the same population stated that they had taken one salicylate containing aluminum (i.e., buffered aspirin) in the 2 days prior to being surveyed (Statistics Canada, 1995).
^8.ni is not in dicated for use in the age group listed as per manufacturer's instructions.

 

Table 11: Estimated daily dermal exposure to total aluminum from cosmetic products for those adults (20-59 years) who use products sold in Canada containing aluminum compounds as active ingredients

Product	Aluminum concentration (µg/g)9	Average amount of product per application (g)10	Average frequency of use (times/day)10	Estimated adult exposure to aluminum (µg/kg-bw per day)11
Antiwrinkle preparations	346-330 000	0.38	0.02	0.04-37
Barrier creams	235-3300	0.53-1.3	0.18-0.98	0.79-24
Dentrifice12	1600-10 000	0.0413	213	1.8-12
Deodorants and antiperspirants	2000-93 000	0.52	1.0	15-689
Eye makeup	40 - 1.0 × 1014	0.005-0.514	1-214	0.01-282
Face makeup	42-35 000	0.01-0.27	0.35-1.2	0.01-59
Fragrances	210-700	0.65	0.68	1.3-4.4
Hair conditioner	1600-16 000	12	0.4	109-1100
Hair dye	442-30 000	12-5014	0.02-0.2914	3.7-1500
Lipstick	158-52 000	0.0114	2-614	0.04-44
Manicure preparation	1000-100 000	0.28	0.16	0.63-63
Powders	3500-13 000	2	0.18	18-65
Skin cleansers	78-100 000	1.3-3.7	0.18-0.63	0.26-1500
Skin moisturizers	235-100 000	0.53	0.98	1.7-732

^9.The ranges of concentrations of aluminum are based on selected products from the Cosmetic Notification System database for which information was available on the aluminum content of active ingredients (Health Canada, 1999b).
^10.
11.Assumed to weigh 70.9 kg (Environmental Health Directorate, 1998).
^12.Exposure to aluminum from dentrifice is based on ingestion rather than dermal exposure.
^13.Assumed to ingest 0.04 g of dentrifice per day based on two brushings per day (Levy et al., 1995).
^14.European Commission (1996).

Figure 1. Solubility of aluminum species (and total aluminum, Alt) in relation to pH in a system in equilibrium with microcrystalline gibbsite (0.001 mM = 0.027 mg/L).

Dossolved Al Species