[homeles_ot-l] Out of plumb: When water treatment causes lead contamination

[Kelly O'Grady]

Out of plumb: When water treatment causes lead contamination

 

The cover story in this month's issue of *Environmental Health Perspectives*
(Dec. 2009) is "Out of Plumb: When Water Treatment Causes Lead
Contamination" by Rebecca Renner.  Her piece reviews several instances in
recent years (including events in DC; Durham and Greenville, NC; and Maine)
where changes in drinking water chemistry released lead from household
plumbing and/or the mineral scale inside the pipes, resulting in
lead-contaminated tap water.  It also discusses loopholes in the federal
Lead and Copper Rule that permit elevation in lead at the tap to go
undetected and/or unreported to the public.

 

<http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2009/117-12/ehp.117-a542.pdf>

 

Renner, R. Out of plumb: When water treatment causes lead contamination

Environmental Health Perspectives, December 2009, 117, 12 p. 542-547

 

Excerpts

 

"Lead in water is an underappreciated source of lead intake," says Bruce
Lanphear, a pediatric epidemiologist at Simon Fraser University in
Vancouver. According to esti­mates from the CDC, on average drinking water
makes up about 10-20% of children's exposure to lead. Although paint and
dust are the most common causes of elevated blood lead in children, in some
cases tap water can be a primary source of exposure.

 

In Greenville, North Carolina, public health workers traced a 1-year-old
boy's blood lead levels of more than 20 μg/dL to tap water that had
cor­roded lead solder in the home plumbing. In some cases, food such as
pasta cooked in the contaminated water had become laced with minute
particles of lead. Tests conducted on this pasta revealed that a single
serving con­tained more lead than a dime-size lead paint.

 

 

 

Kelly O'Grady, RN

Executive Director,

The First Six Years

219 Welland St.,
Pembroke, ON CANADA
K8A 5Y5
Tel: 613-735-0717
Fax: 613-732-2859

Email: lead at nrtco.net

Web:  <http://www.first6years.org/> www.first6years.org 

 

The First Six Years is a grass roots organization  whose primary mandate is
the promotion of optimal social, physical, and environmental conditions for
the development of healthy productive children.  We achieve this goal
through the use of  environmental monitoring and surveillance and public and
professional education.

 

We recognize that the first six years of a child's life is an important
period of brain and nervous system development.  Childhood, extending from
the prenatal period to approximately age five years is a time of rapid
growth and development.  This makes children highly susceptible to the toxic
influences of environmental threats such as lead, mercury, PCBs, pesticides
and ionizing radiation.  

 

 

P please don't print this e-mail unless you really need to.

 

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