The last word on this I hope....

[James Hanson <HANSONJA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

OK, I hope this is the end of this.  I guess this is why most people (myself
included) stay in the renowned lurker mode.  People half-read these
things and fire off replies without any thought.  Sheesh.  But when I get
described as an "otherwise well educated" individual I guess I gotta
respond....

     To all of those upset by my aluminum info and who sent off reflex
replies: GO BACK AND READ THE ORIGINAL MESSAGES!  First - note the
jocular tone of my first message (uh - that means it was humorous - you
know, funny - get it?).  After all I still PLAY my Suzuki - I don't drink
lemonade or orange juice while doing it and I don't like the taste for
tongue blocking.  (And if I can taste the metal, I am getting some of it into
my system. Right?)  I was actually more concerned about the differing
scale lengths - a much more appropriate topic.  Second - I NEVER said
aluminum causes Alzheimer's. I said there was a relationship between
aluminum and Alzheimer's.  (The facts are that Alzheimer's damaged
brain tissues contain "plaques" which are aluminum rich protein deposits
- if anyone cares.)  I quoted from Accounts of Chemical Research - one
of the most respected scientific journals in the world (peer reviewed and
all that) not Prevention magazine (certainly not peer reviewed - I neither
know nor care about respected...anyone who is reading it appears to be
more worried about these things than I am!)  In my quote I said the best
authorities describe the association with Alzhemier's as "equivocal" -
which means they can't say either way - it may be coincidence, it may
be more than that.  Again if you read my message you'll see that the data
I give suggest that playing aluminum harps is probably like cooking in
aluminum pots - which is 2 or 3 orders of magnitude less than other
common sources.  (The people really taking in a lot of aluminum are those
regularly taking buffered aspirin or antacids - 5 orders of magnitude
higher than the expected harmonica exposure.)  Now I didn't explicitly
say it before, but apparently I need to draw the conclusion for some
people: most of us are getting a lot more aluminum from lots of other
sources than we could possibly get from playing aluminum harps, so
ALUMINUM HARPS AREN'T ANYTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.  The fact
remains, however, that aluminum is never good for any living organism -
all of its effects are toxic.  We are pretty robust critters, with lots of
protective features, so a little bit isn't going to be a major problem.  Also
the body doesn't absorb aluminum very well - again, citrates are an
exception which is why I mentioned oranges and lemons etc. as things
to avoid while playing a suzuki - why take the risk?  (One of the
responses mentioned aluminum beverage cans - these are coated with
plastic so the liquid never contacts the aluminum.  The metal would be
etched fairly quickly by acidic liquids like most colas, etc.)  Again - I
NEVER SUGGESTED PEOPLE QUIT PLAYING THESE HARPS OR WORRY
ABOUT THIS!  There are lots of risks out there - off the top of my head, I
would imagine some other metal bodied harps use chromium containing
alloys - that's another metal that's bad for you - associated with cancer
and birth defects; and the plastic combs appear to be based on a
phenolic resin - I expect they give off formaldehyde and other monomers
that are associated with cancer.  (Notice I'm use standard scientific CYA
terminology - we observe these associations but have no directly known
causal relationships.  This is the same type of wording I used before!) 
But like with aluminum, we're all probably exposed to more of these
things through other natural and synthetic sources than from our harps. 
If you sit around and worry about all the risks and dangers out there,
you'll go nuts.  But it pays to be informed and to take reasonable
precautions - like the oft-repeated suggestion here that you wear
earplugs for playing or listening to loud amplified music.  

Sheesh again.  Sorry about the wasted bandwidth but it bugs me to have
people accusing me of saying things I never said - and especially of
spreading misinformation when I carefully documented everything and
included the standard disclaimers, and only added it as an aside
anyway.  I hope this ends this ridiculous discussion.

Let's get back to more reasonable issues like if Little Walter was "too
hot", Big Walter "too cold", and Medium Walter "just right".  Along those
lines, I recently purchased the "Bluestime" CD that has been previously
mentioned here - sometimes with disparaging remarks about Magic Dick's
singing.  After listening to it I understood but sort of disagreed with these
- his voice is OK, but it doesn't sound like a typical "blues singer" - it
sounds more like what you'd expect for a musical or light opera.  So it
doesn't always seem to fit the "feel" of the music the band is doing - and
the band is very very good.  Now go and argue about that.  

One final time - Sheesh.

J. Hanson
(To quote SBWII - Don't start me talkin' - I'll tell everything I know...)
(And I know an awful lot.....)