Lead in Water
typically leaches into water from plumbing in older buildings. Lead pipes and plumbing fittings have been banned since August 1998.
Children and pregnant women are most susceptible to lead health risks.
For advice on avoiding lead, see EPA’s Lead in your drinking water fact sheet.Lead is used in batteries, in domestic water distribution pipes, in paints and as an organic lead compound, alkyl lead, in gasoline.
Metabolically, lead interacts with iron and interferes with haemoglobin synthesis. Lead uptake is affected by the action of calcium and an intake of adequate dietary calcium tends to suppress uptake.
Exposure to lead, particularly of young children, should be minimised as far as possible. At relatively low concentrations, particularly with continuous exposure, lead can cause neurological impairment in foetuses and young children. This can lead to behavioural changes and impaired performance in intelligence quotient tests. The effects are slight at low or intermittent exposure to lead, but become more pronounced as the exposure to lead increases. In adults the neurological effects are much less pronounced and the effects of exposure to toxic concentrations of lead take the form of anaemia and lead colic, that is, acute episodes of abdominal pain.
Lead in water supplies is most conveniently removed by applying conventional water treatment processes of coagulation with alum, ferric salts or lime followed by settlement and filtration.As lead is often introduced into water by corrosion from plumbing materials in the home, an important aspect of mitigating against the exposure to lead is in the treatment of the water and control of the pH and calcium concentrations, so that dissolution of lead from plumbing is minimised.
The highest level of lead in consumers’ tap water will be found in water that has been standing in the pipes after periods of nonuse (overnight or longer). This is because standing water tends to leach lead or copper out of the metals in the distribution system more readily than does moving water. Therefore, the simplest short-term or immediate measure that can be taken to reduce exposure to lead in drinking water is to let the water run for two to three minutes before each use. Also, drinking water should not be taken from the hot water tap, as hot water tends to leach lead more readily than cold.
It is imperative that you filter your water to a quality that you can rely on and in a way that when municipal systems fail you will still be safe.
A Reverse Osmosis System removes virtually all: bad taste, odor, turbidity, organic compounds, herbicides, insecticides, pesticides, chlorine and THM’s, bacteria, virus, cysts, parasites, arsenic, heavy metals, lead, cadmium, aluminum, dissolved solids, sodium, calcium, magnesium, inorganic dead dirt minerals, fluoride, sulfates, nitrates, phosphates, detergents, radioactivity and asbestos