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s far as the general public is concerned universities, those hallowed halls, remain places where academics can pursue knowledge unhindered. But many universities and higher education institutions are compromised by the interests of their funders and an increasingly narrow and corporate view of science.
Professor Christopher Exley, a lauded biologist, the world’s pre-eminent expert on aluminium and a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology – a recognition few scientists achieve – last year lost research funding for his longstanding work on aluminium toxicity in diseases like Alzheimer’s and Autism, and its role as an adjuvant in vaccines.
It took place through a series of politically motivated moves that ultimately ended with his funding being completely cut off.
Aluminium is toxic
If you take the time to listen to one of Exley’s many lectures – and you should – you will learn that aluminium is ubiquitous. It is everywhere in the environment, and it is highly toxic to human beings.
In the 1980s Exley was doing research into why fish were dying in acidified lakes and rivers – he came to understand they were dying of aluminium toxicity. Aluminium, previously locked up in rocks and clays or recycled in the environment by silicic acid, through the process of acidification due to acid rain, had become bioavailable and entered into biological life cycles.
Today, we ingest aluminium through processed foods, drink it in water, cook in aluminium pots and pans (many pans are now made of anodised aluminium). It is found in baby formula, cosmetics and is a key ingredient in many vaccines.
The important public health implications of Exley’s work
A tenured professor at Keele University in Staffordshire for nearly 30 years, with more than 200 papers under his belt, Exley and his team of research scientists had in 2017 established what he describes as an “unequivocal” connection between aluminium toxicity and Alzheimer’s disease.
