Lead in drinking water is an emotional issue. At least 9 million US homes are at risk for contamination, and if you have kids in the house, that’s bad news. While there’s little the EPA can do to improve water safety at the federal level until it becomes a local priority, there are steps you can take to make your tap water safer.
What Is Lead?
Lead is an element. A soft, silvery metal found in the Earth’s crust, it’s ubiquitous in the environment.
How Does Lead Get into Drinking Water?
Lead may be common in the environment, but it’s relatively rare in wells or community water supplies. Most lead in water comes from the thousands of products it was used in before we understood its toxicity. Lead has properties that make it exceptional for a wide range of industrial and infrastructure applications.
Most lead-contaminated water comes from:
Aging Lead Service Lines
More than 22 million Americans get their drinking water from lead service lines. It’s relatively safe as long as the local water utility adds corrosion inhibitors to protect the pipes.
A chemical reaction that causes leaching can occur between lead and acidic water if a service line isn’t treated. A lack of corrosion control is what exposed thousands of Flint, Michigan children to dangerous levels of lead in 2014.
You can take precautions, however, if you know you have a lead service line.
We recommend in this situation a whole-house filter for lead.
Lead Pipes
Lead Plumbing Fixtures, Well Seals and Submersible Pumps
Today’s plumbing materials are lead-free, but before 2014, there were few regulations on household plumbing materials. The chrome-plated brass faucets you thought were safe could contain up to 8-percent lead. Pre-1990’s well seals and submersible pumps can also release lead into your tap water.
How Do I Know if I Have Lead Water Pipes or a Lead Service Line?
Identifying lead service lines is tricky. They’re a dull gray color, but the only part you can see is the short section that enters your home. Check it with a magnet. If it sticks, the pipe isn’t lead.
Still, that doesn’t guarantee that sections under the street are lead-free. Service lines are often repaired or replaced in parts. The safest bet is to ask your local planning office for more information.
Household plumbing can be tested like a service line, but there’s no way to safely identify lead solder.
What Are the Symptoms of Lead Exposure?
The health effects of lead exposure are devastating, and in some cases, irreversible.
In adults, exposure to lead causes:
- Fatigue
- Muscle aches
- Hypertension
- Chronic headaches
- Nerve damage
- Memory loss
- Infertility and miscarriage
Children are at higher risk of lead poisoning because their bodies absorb it better. Once lead enters the body, it’s stored in soft tissue.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the health effects, like lead levels, are cumulative and include:
- Anemia
- Nerve disorders
- Kidney damage
- Hearing loss
- Developmental delays
- Learning disabilities
- Behavioral problems
- Low IQ
- Speech and language impairments
- Seizures, coma and death
Infants who drink formula prepared with lead-laden tap water are at the highest risk.
Can I See, Taste, or Smell Lead in Drinking Water?
Unlike chemical contaminants, you can’t taste lead in tap water. Colorless and odorless, it’s a silent killer. Identifying lead contamination without a water test is impossible.
Is There a Safe Level of Lead in Drinking Water?
Whether there’s a safe level of lead in drinking water depends on who you ask.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) monitors public drinking water systems. They set water quality standards for more than 90 contaminants that are a danger to human health, including lead.
The EPA’s action level for lead in drinking water is 15 parts per billion, yet the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends one part per billion or less. So, what should parents accept as a maximum contaminant level goal?
The fact is — while the federal government sets drinking water quality standards, cities and towns are responsible for managing lead in water. Passing the Safe Drinking Water Act was a good step, but it came without the additional money community water systems need to upgrade infrastructure. At current funding levels, it could be decades before lead service lines are replaced.
Testing Your Drinking Water for Lead
The only way to know if there’s lead in water is to test it. You can ask your water supplier for a copy of the annual Consumer Confidence Report. But while it shows the lead levels in your water supply, it doesn’t account for contamination after the water leaves the treatment plant. If you have a lead service line or lead piping in your home, there could still be lead in your drinking water.
The EPA’s Lead and Copper Rule ensures your local water authority takes corrosion control seriously, but errors occur. Dozens of cities are found to have corrosion control issues every year. It also requires municipalities to sample tap water in the community, but the number of homes they check is small. Unless yours is one of them, testing is the only solution.
The process is simple, but we recommend using only certified water treatment labs. When safety counts, they’re the best equipped to guarantee accurate results. If you don’t have a lab nearby, purchase a home test kit online.
If it’s the first time you’ve had your drinking water tested, we like SimpleLab’s Tap Score for its quality and simplicity – See our top choices here. Everything you need is included in the kit. Send them a sample of cold water, and in a few days, you’ll have results plus guidance on choosing water filtration products. It couldn’t be easier.
What to Do if There’s Lead in Your Drinking Water?
If you had your water tested, and it shows lead in your drinking water, ask your local health department about a blood test that measures a person’s total exposure. For kids, they’re usually free.
While you wait for results, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend the following measures to immediately reduce or prevent your exposure to lead:
- Switch to bottled water for making baby formula.
- Drink only cold water — if you have lead pipes, hot water increases leaching.
- Don’t cook with boiling water — it can increase the concentration of lead in your food.
- Discard the first 40 ml of breast milk at each feeding to reduce the concentration of lead.
- Clean faucet aerators weekly. Pipes containing lead corrode over time, leaving lead particles stuck in the screens.
- Don’t get water from garden spigots or other plumbing fixtures not intended for drinking. They may contain more lead.
You can continue to shower despite the water temperature. Human skin doesn’t absorb lead well.
Long-term, you can reduce your exposure to lead by upgrading your home’s pipes but replacing a lead service line is a costly project. In most cases, a better alternative is to install a lead removal filter.
Filtration Options to Remove Lead from Drinking Water
There are several ways to remove lead and other toxic substances from drinking water. If you have a lead service line but not lead pipes, a whole-house filtration system for LEAD will purify water throughout your home. Installed where the water service line enters the house, it can’t, however, remove lead from your home’s plumbing.
If you have lead pipes, the better solution is to purchase an undersink or countertop water filter that treats water from the kitchen tap. Connect it to your cold water service line, and it drastically reduces your exposure to lead from all sources from a lead service line to the faucet.
We recommend only purchasing filtration systems certified by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF). The NSF is an independent testing organization that puts filters through their paces and guarantees that they eliminate lead as advertised.
See our Top-Rated LEAD Removal Filters.
Final Thoughts
Legislation like the Safe Drinking Water Act put water quality issues on the nation’s radar, but lead will remain an issue for years to come. So have your water tested regularly and take the appropriate measures to keep your family safe.