ABSTRACT
Phosphorus is one of the essential elements for life. On Earth it appears predominantly as phosphates at very low concentration. In evolutionary terms, this comparative scarcity may have given an evolutionary advantage to creatures able to efficiently conserve phosphate. In excess, phosphate has the potential to become a cause for disease, exemplified in the emerging evidence implicating it as a potential cardiovascular risk factor. There have been increasing concerns regarding this potential health problem caused by the increasing phosphate in human diets. Meat and dairy products, as well as the increasing use phosphate food additives, are the main sources of bioavailable phosphate in the diet. Public health campaigners are currently pushing for more information to be made available on the phosphate content of food, as well as regulation to reduce the amounts of phosphate containing food additives currently being used. The Paleoproterzoic era was characterized by an increase in the bioavailability of phosphate. This may have accelerated the oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere and kickstarted the evolution and diversity of multicellular life forms. Currently the world has become dependent on mined phosphate rock for food production. This is a limited resource that is controlled by only a few countries. It is used poorly and often wasted, with phosphate fertilizers washing into water bodies causing eutrophication and algal blooms. Paradoxically, this is reducing the biodiversity of life on Earth through the extinction of hundreds of species. The unrestrained management of phosphate rock and our unrelenting dependency on it may lead to the 342paradoxical position in which phosphate rock becomes a resource to be fought over, whereas contemporaneously both health and environmental experts are advocating decreases in its current uses.
