BHARAT ALUMINIUM COMPANY LTD(BALCO)

Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd. (BALCO) is an Indian aluminium company. The development of special aluminium alloys for “Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile” – Agni and “Surface Missile” – Prithvi have been significant achievements of BALCO. BALCO has been the first in the Indian Aluminium Industry to produce the Alloy Rods, which is a Feedstock for all Aluminium Alloy Conductors, very much needed for today’s power transmission lines.
If we look at anything in our environment, it's not free of aluminum and its compounds but at the same time they cause many environtmental hazards too.
Human Health Effects: It is evident that aluminum is widely used & most found metal in the Earth's crust. This Innocent metal has plenty hazards when people get exposed to high concentrations.  Aluminium are ready to form as ions which is easily soluble in water thus causing major health problems. They get inside the human body through injection, ingestion and inhalation. Long lasting exposure may cause Dementia, Nervous Disorder, Listlessness, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Alzheimer's Disease. etc.
Health Hazards to Flora & Fauna: The main challenge faced by the agriculturist is the acidification of the soil, which happens due to aluminum too. These aluminum readily forms ions that get soluble in water thus leaches the nutrients in the soil, leaving it acidic. These aluminum based acids still continue its journey reaching the herbivorous animals which eat these plants. These plants are already affected by the aluminum based acids. Not confining to this alone, it also cause hazards to birds which get fed from lakes which are acidified. These acidified lakes breaks the eco-system, causing decline in fishes and amphibians life. Thus the environment natural eco-chain is disturbed and leads to major disaster in some places.
Aluminium (Al), when present in high concentrations, has for long been recognised as a toxic agent to aquatic freshwater organisms i.e. downstream industrial point sources of Al-rich process water. Today the environmental effects of aluminium are mainly a result of acidic precipitation; acidification of catchments leads to increased Al- concentrations in soil solution and freshwaters. Large parts of both the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems are affected. In the aquatic environment, aluminium acts as a toxic agent on gill-breathing animals such as fish and invertebrates, by causing loss of plasma- and haemolymph ions leading to osmoregulatory failure. Aluminium seems also to accumulate in freshwater invertebrates. Dietary organically complexed aluminium, maybe in synergistic effects with other contaminants, may easily be absorbed and interfere with important metabolic processes in mammals and birds. The mycorrhiza and fine root systems of terrestrial plants are adversely affected by high levels of inorganic monomeric aluminium. As in the animals, aluminium seems to have its primary effect on enzyme systems important for the uptake of nutrients. Aluminium can accumulate in plants. Aluminium contaminated invertebrates and plants might thus be a link for aluminium to enter into terrestrial food chains.
My views: Though Aluminium poses a threat to lives of many organisms and hence the ecosystem it is an inseparable part of our daily lives and so it’s production can obviously not be eliminated.  Even though it helps in cutting down the carbon foot print and GHG's, on the other side, it affects the human & other living organisms life. Every year “there are approximately 8,300 fires that occur in landfills, (University of Kentucky College of Law),” many of which contain highly flammable aluminium dross products. These hazards can be minimized or eliminated by careful attention to safe handling practices.