We all know that lead poisoning is devastating, but it won’t happen to us — right? Yet every year, thousands of people are exposed to lead, and many suffer irreversible health effects. Children are the most vulnerable, but everyone is at risk.
If you’re not certain your tap water is lead-free, today is the day to find out. Join us as we discuss the dangers of lead, how to test for it and what to do if the test is positive.
What is Lead?
Lead is a blue-gray heavy metal. Number 82 on the Periodic Table of Elements, it’s valued for its extraordinary physical properties. Strong yet flexible, it was once considered the ideal metal for plumbing before researchers discovered its toxicity. It’s still used today in the manufacturing and healthcare sectors.
How Does Lead Get into Drinking Water?
Lead is surprisingly rare in North American water supplies. Unlike in other parts of the world, environmental regulations keep the rivers, lakes and underground aquifers we drink from relatively clean.
The primary source of lead poisoning in the US is lead paint chips. Although lead paint was banned in 1978, it’s still present in many older homes.
But tap water also contributes to lead poisoning — hundreds of cases are reported annually. The most famous in memory occurred in Flint, Michigan in 2014, poisoning more than a thousand local children. And since then, many similar incidences have been reported across the country.
The most common source of lead in drinking water is aging underground service lines — the distribution system that carries water from the treatment plant to homes.
Lead can also leach from pipes, solder and household plumbing fixtures found in homes built before 1979. And until 2014, even so-called “lead-free” faucets could legally contain up to 8-percent lead. Controlling water chemistry prevents lead leaching, but it’s challenging for public water systems to manage.
Despite infrastructure upgrades, at least 10 million American homes are still served by lead service lines, and many more get water from lead pipes. Well owners are also at risk. Well seals manufactured before 1990 and some submersible pumps may contain lead parts.
What Are the Health Effects of Lead Contamination?
A neurotoxin, lead is a human health hazard. Whether inhaled or ingested, it’s stored in bone and soft tissue. Growing children are the most vulnerable to lead exposure because their bodies absorb it better.
Health effects may include:
- Anemia
- Hearing loss
- Muscle weakness
- Infertility
- Miscarriage
- Nervous system disorders
- Impaired motor skills
- Behavioral issues
- Speech and language deficits
- Learning disabilities
- Seizures and more
High lead levels, especially in infants, can be fatal.
How Much Lead in Drinking Water is Safe?
According to health experts, no amount of lead in drinking water is safe. But the Environmental Protection Agency set the maximum contaminant level goal at 15 parts per billion. Why so high?
Community water systems work hard to limit lead levels through corrosion control treatment, but realistically, it will take decades to replace lead service lines. In the meantime, aggressive community surveillance continues, but it’s rarely enough to ensure your water supply is safe. It’s up to homeowners to take charge of their drinking water quality.
How To Identify Lead Pipes and Plumbing Materials
The first step to getting the lead out of your water is to assess your potential exposure by identifying if you drink from lead service lines, pipes or plumbing fixtures.
Service Lines
Your service line is buried underground, so the only portion of it you can see is the inches-long section that connects to the water shut-off valve inside your home. If it’s a dull gray color and non-magnetic, it’s probably lead.
In general, new homes built after 1988 shouldn’t have lead service lines. But homes built before that may, even if the part you can see has been upgraded.
The only way to know if underground lines contain lead is to contact your local planning office. Since your water supplier is responsible for corrosion control treatment, they should know if you have a lead service line. The planning office should have records on service line replacement or repairs.
Pipes
Houses constructed before 1979 have lead pipes. Some states phased it out earlier, but an estimated 40-percent of existing homes were built before 1970, so many families are affected. Older homes may also have copper pipes with lead solder or pipe fittings, but that’s difficult to ascertain. You may need a professional’s advice.
Plumbing Fixtures
Pre-1978 plumbing fixtures could contain a significant amount of lead. In 1991, the Lead and Copper Rule reduced the allowable limit to 8-percent. And in 2014, the Environmental Protection Agency further lowered the maximum to 0.25 percent in response to increasing concerns about lead in drinking water.
But unless you know when your fixtures were last replaced, it’s almost impossible to tell if faucets contain lead. The chrome-plated brass faucets in many homes look safe, but they may contain lead alloys.
Should I Test My Tap Water for Lead?
Identifying lead contamination early is the best way to mitigate its health effects. If you drink from a well, having your water tested is your responsibility. If you drink city water, your annual consumer confidence report shows the lead levels in your water source. But since most lead contamination occurs after water leaves the treatment plant, the only way to know if there’s lead in your tap water is to have it tested.
How To Test for Lead in Water
There are fewer test kits for lead than other contaminants. A toxic metal, it’s hazardous in part parts per billion (ppb), not parts per million like most substances, so it’s more difficult to detect. Accuracy counts, so we recommend having your water tested by a laboratory.
If there’s no state-certified laboratory in your area, you can purchase a mail-in test kit online. We recommend SimpleLab’s TapScore. It’s an all-inclusive test kit with everything you need including a postage- paid return label. Send them water samples, and they’ll do the testing for you. It couldn’t be easier.
SimpleLab partners with certified laboratories nationwide, so you can rely on the results. And reports include non-biased recommendations for water filters that reduce lead. Choose from city or well water panels starting at $45.
A less expensive alternative is test strips. Starting at $20 for a single test, they’re inexpensive and easy to use. Some, however, are less accurate than laboratory testing. You get only positive, negative or approximate readings, and the testing process is prone to user error — follow the instructions to the letter.
WaterSafe test strips are among the most sensitive and can detect lead down to 3.8 parts per billion, but they won’t tell you how much lead is in your drinking water. So, while any water testing is better than none if you suspect elevated lead levels, test strips are best for routine screening and for evaluating the performance of a water filter.
How Can I Reduce My Family’s Exposure to Lead?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggest the following measures for reducing potential exposure to lead:
- Test water regularly for lead — test strips are affordable and accurate enough for monitoring
- Use only cold tap water for drinking and cooking — lead dissolves better in hot water
- Switch to bottled water for making baby formula
- Run the faucet for two minutes before using it to flush out lead particles in your pipes
- Clean faucet aerators weekly to remove loose particles of lead
- If you suspect lead in your drinking water, have your child’s blood tested. Some public health departments will do this for free.
If you had your water tested and lead levels are high, filtering your drinking water is a better long-term solution than replacing your home’s pipes or buying costly, environmentally disastrous bottled water. Let’s look at the options.
What Type of Water Filters for Removing Lead
There are two general types of filters — whole-house filtration systems that are plumbed into your main water line and purify water throughout your home — and so-called point-of-use filters such as undersink filtration systems and filter pitchers that treat limited amounts of water for drinking and cooking. Which should you choose?
If you have a lead service line but not lead plumbing, a whole-home filter is convenient. It removes contaminants from shower water, and you never have to worry about which faucet the kids are drinking from. But whole-home systems won’t remove lead from the plumbing materials within your home. For that, you need a filter that purifies water at the tap or after it’s been poured.
Since lead enters the body by being ingested or inhaled — human skin doesn’t absorb lead well —point-of-use filters are as good a choice for lead removal as whole-home filters. But there are several factors to consider from price to quality.
These types of filters remove the highest percentages of lead:
#1 Distillers
Boiling water doesn’t remove lead, but distillation does. Distillers capture steam and condense it into purified water. Starting at $70, countertop distillers remove up to 99-percent of lead. Production, however, is limited to 4-6 gallons per day.
#2 Carbon Filters
Carbon filters reduce lead through adsorption — the process by which contaminants are trapped in a porous surface. Better carbon filters can reduce lead by 95-percent.
But beware of advertising claims. A carbon filter that removes “up to” 90 percent of lead may remove far less. Solid block carbon or catalytic carbon filters remove more lead than garden-variety carbon.
Affordable, carbon filters are available in whole-home and point-of-use filtration systems from faucet filters to filtration pitchers.
#3 KDF
KDF, or Kinetic Fluxion Degradation filters, remove up to 95-percent of lead through a chemical reaction. More expensive than carbon, it’s added in limited amounts to whole-home and point-of-use filtration systems to boost contaminant reduction percentages.
#4 Reverse Osmosis
Reverse osmosis systems remove up to 99-percent of lead and other contaminants by forcing water through a semi-permeable membrane. The process is slow, but it produces some of the purest drinking water money can buy.
Rare in whole-home filters, RO systems are installed on the countertop or under the kitchen sink where they treat water primarily for drinking and cooking. Highly effective, they nonetheless have drawbacks.
RO filters are inefficient, creating 1-2 gallons of wastewater for every gallon of purified water they make. And if your incoming water pressure is low, you may need to install an electric or permeate booster pump. Economical, however, systems start at less than $200.
Choosing a Water Filter — Why Quality Matters
Unlike sediment, chlorine and other aesthetic contaminants, lead is toxic — there’s no room for error. A filter that removes 50-percent of 10 ppb reduces lead to well below the EPA’s action level. But faced with 40 ppb, the same system still leaves 20 ppb behind, so select a model with high lead reduction percentages.
We strongly recommend purchasing only NSF-certified filters. Independently tested, they’re guaranteed to meet or exceed advertising claims. The certification program is voluntary, so companies that take the initiative to pursue certification are committed to the quality of their products.
Final Thoughts
Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act to address the many health risks associated with contaminated water, but until communities can afford to upgrade their infrastructure, lead pipes and service lines will remain a threat.
The good news, however, is that lead is simple to test for and even easier to avoid with the right strategies. But there’s no time to lose.