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Lead in your tap water?
Reported in Medical News Today
Dated: August 05, 2005
Lead may pose greater leaching risk than standard tests show. In critiquing a common safety standard for brass
used in plumbing, researchers have found the regimen may be flawed. As a result, they say, some of the lead that crept into
tap water in Washington, D.C., and other metropolitan areas may be traceable to household fixtures, valves and other components and
not just pipes and systems further from the home.
The new study looked at the American National Standards Institute/National Sanitation Foundation 61 Section 8 standard--a protocol
consisting of specific methods and test-water formulas that governments and industries have relied upon to ensure safe plumbing since 1988.
"As a result of problems identified with the test protocol, some products passing National Sanitation Foundation Section 8
may have a greater capacity to leach lead into water than we believed," said Marc Edwards of Virginia Tech, who is one of the
study leaders.
Edwards, Abhijeet Dudi and Nestor Murray, all at Virginia Tech, and Michael Schock, of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) National
Risk Management Research Laboratory, report their findings in the Aug. 4 issue of the Journal of the American Waterworks Association.
Edwards, Dudi and Murray are members of a multidisciplinary team supported by a National Science Foundation Materials Use: Science, Engineering
and Society (MUSES) award.
The researchers tested identical brass devices purchased from a local hardware store by subjecting the pieces to the Section 8 protocol and to
modifications they made to the protocol. They also applied the same tests to a simulated plumbing device made of solid lead.
The results:
The Section 8 water samples reacted less, or were less "aggressive," with lead in the plumbing than designers of the standard had
intended. The researchers found other problems that stemmed from calculations that underlie some of the test results. Normalization factors
allow evaluators to estimate actual lead concentrations at the tap, but they are affected by device size. Because of normalization and the
non-aggressive waters, the small, simulated device made of pure lead pipe passed the Section 8 leaching test.
The scientists began to scrutinize the Section 8 methods after learning that one of the test solutions contains high concentrations of
orthophosphate to buffer the water's pH. Water utilities use orthophosphate actually to inhibit lead leaching.
So, test solutions containing such leaching inhibitors could not react adequately with plumbing and would produce a flawed reading.
"It's analogous to an automobile crash test using a wall of pillows," Edwards said.
Because lead softens alloys, it is an important component in many plumbing metals.
Without adding small quantities of lead, manufacturers could not craft intricate shapes necessary for modern devices. Under certain
chemical conditions, such as high acidity or low amounts of carbon dissolved from minerals, the devices can leach significant amounts of that
lead into water.
The problem is complex because treatments necessary to treat one water-quality problem, such as bacteria, can have unintended consequences,
such as lead leaching.
In the 1986 Safe Drinking Water Act as amended in 1996 (USEPA, 2000), Congress explicitly banned new devices containing pure lead pipe, leaded
solders, and brass with more than 8 percent lead content. However, these materials remain installed in older homes.
At the time of the legislation, there were no alternatives for leaded brass, and experts believed it was not feasible to reduce lead content in
devices to that in pipes and solder.
Some components are labeled lead-free, even if they contain 7.99 percent lead. Despite such labeling, all brass
products that contain lead must pass the Section 8 performance-testing standard.
Recently, legislators have proposed updated laws to allow for modern brass alloys--some containing as little as 0.02 percent lead or less by
weight--which could reduce lead leaching considerably.
Check out lead levels in your body or water with our accurate, easy to use at home Lead Heavy Metals
Test kit
Sample of a Lead HMT kit
Osumex Bio-Chelat is most effective in eliminating heavy metals contamination in the
body
The above information is provided for general
educational purposes only. It is not intended to replace competent
health care advice received from a knowledgeable healthcare professional.
You are urged to seek healthcare advice for the treatment of any
illness or disease.
Health Canada and the FDA (USA) have not evaluated these
statements. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent
any disease.
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