Lead in Drinking Water

How to remove lead in drinking water

Sources of Lead in Drinking Water

Lead can get into drinking water through the water supply lines and/or home--pipes, solder, fixtures and faucets fittings.
Lead-laden materials are often used plumbing or in water service lines. Old homes or perhaps new ones might have plumbing with lead or lead solder. The greatest way for lead to get into the home drinking water is through the plumbing systems.
The USEPA estimates that 98% of all homes have pipes, fixtures or solder joints in the household plumbing that can leach some level of lead into drinking water.
Lead is naturally available as ores in metal deposits, but lead mining and smelting operations may be sources of contamination.� However, the chance of getting into the source water is lesser than the contamination within household pipes.

Health effects of lead in water

Lead is a toxic metal that is harmful if inhaled or swallowed. Medical information says that a body exposure to lead for a long period of time is dangerous to your health. Even a prolonged exposure to a low concentration is unhealthy. Exposure to lead can cause learning deficiencies in children and, in many cases, hypertension in adults.

According to EPA, short term effects of lead can cause a variety of adverse health effects when people are exposed to it at levels above the action level for relatively short periods of time. These effects may include interference with red blood cell chemistry, delays in normal physical and mental development in babies and young children, slight deficits in the attention span, hearing, and learning abilities of children, and slight increases in the blood pressure of some adults.� Also, long-term effects has the potential to cause the following effects from a lifetime exposure at levels above the action level: stroke and kidney disease; cancer. lead has a very damaging effect on the body's electrical system, the nervous system. Lead causes the critical life-giving messages, sent from the brain to every cell and organ in our body, to become distorted.

For more information go to www.epa.gov/safewater/lcrmr/fs_consumer.html.

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What if you suspect lead in your drinking water?

By EPA regulation, your water supply authorities must collect water samples twice a year and analyze them to find out if lead is present above 15 ppb in more than 10 percent of all homes tested.
You can contact the water authority for information about the quality of your drinking water.� If samples exceeds the 15 ppb action level, your water supplier is responsible to take remedial actions to keep lead below the action level. You can also obtain a list of other contaminants they test for in your water.

If you think your drinking water may contain lead, you should contact your local health department or water supply authority for information about testing your water.� It is also recommended that you:

Use only cold water for drinking and cooking.
Run water for 15 to 30 seconds before drinking it, especially if you have not used your water for a few hours.�
Do NOT boil water to attempt to get rid of lead.� Boiling actually helps to increase the presence of lead in your drinking water.
Have your water tested by a certified laboratory.
Purchase lead test kit or a water filter.� Read the labels to ensure that the kit or the filter is NSF-certified to remove lead.

Click here for a list of state contacts in the United States.

How to treat or remove lead from drinking water

If a test confirms lead contamination in your water and you decide to remove it, there several point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) treatment technologies available to remove lead from drinking water. EPA listed distillation, cation exchange, and reverse osmosis both POU and POE technologies for lead treatment.

You can install a whole house water filter such as the technologies mentioned above if you prefer to treat all water coming to your house. You also have the option to install a POU filters like counter-top, faucet mount, or undersink water filters. Ensure that your choice of treatment technology is NSF-certified to remove lead. Because a device is tested does not mean it is certified to remove lead. Read the labels carefully.

For further information about lead you may contact:
EPA Safe Drinking Water Hotline: 1-800-426-4791
National Lead Information Center: 1-800-424-LEAD

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You can obtain an instant test for lead in water! Get a good sample of potable water by allowing tap water to sit in the plumbing pipes overnite or over the weekend (this will give you the "worst case scenario" for dissolved lead in your water supply). Then fill a large plastic pitcher with water. Then test a small sample of the water by adding Indicator Solution.

Note: The lower detectable limit (sensitivity) of the kit is 1 ppm (part per million) lead which is above most current guidelines of ~10-50 ppb lead in water. This test will alert users to high levels of lead in potable water that will require immediate action!

How Water Distillers Work
One the ways to remove lead in drinking water is by distillations. Home water distillers are used to improve the quality of drinking water. Distiller heats water in the unit compartment until it reaches the boiling point. The distillation device come as either a counter-top or a stand-alone unit, or as an inline under counter unit.

Reverse Osmosis Systems
Reverse Osmosis (RO) water filtration process is pressure-driven. RO water filters work best at a high pressure flow. The pressure applied is much beyond the osmotic pressure of the contaminated water against a semi-permeable membrane.

Multi-Pure�s MP750 Plus Reverse Osmosis System features FIVE Stages of filtration giving you performance that no other device can provide. By combining Multi-Pure�s superior carbon block filter technology with state-of-the-art reverse osmosis, you will receive the highest quality drinking water possible.