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Comment by _Adam | Hacker News Reader

I measured the concentration of lead in the hot water from my kitchen faucet. My plumping is copper with lead solder, so I expected some but not too much.

The result was 105 ppb. This is insane when you consider that Flint's level was 20 ppb during the crisis.

The cold water should be zero, but I installed a lead filter to ensure this.

Lead testing is pretty cheap and there are usually a lot of labs around big cities. Highly recommend water testing even if you don't think you have the risk factors.

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> Lead testing is pretty cheap and there are usually a lot of labs around big cities. Highly recommend water testing even if you don't think you have the risk factors.

Could you tell me what you used to do the testing?

Very interested in this as well

Here in Germany I tested twice. Once, I took one of several online providers who send you a test kit - I think it was some 20 Euros or something similar - and you follow the procedure they give you and send the test kit back. You get an email and a website with the result after a few days. This is just for your own information, you cannot use such results in court, for example.

Another time I asked my local city water lab. They had no procedure for some random guy from the public, since those other companies exist and already make it convenient, but they still did not even try to send me away and the big lab boss himself handled my case, explaining the procedure and all, and taking the water samples back from me. Price was similarly little.

By the way, that second time I tested a very commonly sold entry-level Italian portafilter machine, a Rancilio Silvia with a brass boiler that even today contains lead. Following the sampling procedure I had agreed upon with the lab boss as the correct one the lead values I got back significantly exceeded the limits. And about those limits, the medical limit is zero. That the official limit is higher is because our society is unable to get us to that desirable level.

By the way, a good chelator for lead is DMSA, which is produced very cheaply in China. Russians produce "Unithiol" (DMPS) which is best against mercury, and somewhat good against lead (and a lot of other stuff). I actually got Russian Unithiol even though DMPS also is produced here in Germany as "Dimaval". I never used EDTA derivatives for chelation, but I have many years of.. experience with DMSA and DMPS. See somewhere in my comment history. That is why I took lead a bit more seriously and why I tested my portafilter machines. I now have an Ascaso Steel Uno PID whhere the manufacturer took great care to eliminate anything that could be problematic in all components - plus, it's a really good portafilter machine :)

> This is just for your own information, you cannot use such results in court, for example.

Whats the point of that then? If its accuracy is not good enough for court, have you just bought an experience?

I always used to get a sore throat from being a passenger on long vehicle journeys when leaded petrol was around and I was informed some years later Pectin is good for pollutants like lead.

Never heard or seen any studies that back up this claim though, but I still bought a few bottles and necked them to see what sort of effect they had.

I think N Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) may be useful for moving metals around the body.

> If its accuracy is not good enough for court, have you just bought an experience?

What's court got to do with any of this? You do a lab test to find out if your water is contaminated, and then you take steps to resolve that. Either change the piping, or put in a filter.

I can imagine that many landlords would not be happy to hear they have to replace all of the pipes in a house. I'm also suspecting, given the current situation in the world with regard to housing that a lot of people on this forum rent.

It's not the accuracy the court is concerned with, it's the chain of custody. They are worried you would deliberately contaminate the samples to get somebody else to pay for improvements to the plumbing that aren't necessary.

> If its accuracy is not good enough for court

The minimum threshold for accuracy in court is zero. Courts don't make admissibility decisions based on the quality of the evidence; they make the decision on other, more inscrutable criteria.

Not GP, but I found a local water testing company that offered a lead test kit. They gave me a jar with instructions. I brought back the jar full of water collected according to the instructions and they sent it in to a lab. The hardest part was not running water from any tap or toilet for 10 hours before drawing the test water.

Living in an older house it's been totally worth it to test for lead in the usual places so we can be aware of our exposure risks, and also to have our blood tested periodically for lead to make sure we've been successful avoiding it.

Thats sorta crazy for just lead solder. City water? What is the ph? Cause most of the city systems run the ph slightly basic to assure the water isn't trying to etch the pipes, and that also keeps the lead from leaching. That was actually the problem in flint, they let the water system ph get to low and it started to leach out of the pipes which is why originally they denied there was a problem (testing the water at the source).

Those levels are likely not coming from the lead solder but from the supply line to your house

At those levels there is no way that the supply line is using a coagulant.

If it's just the hot water, it could be your water heater. I would not expect soldered copper pipe, even with leaded solder, to be leaching that much lead. The vast majority of the solder is not exposed to the water, it's just sealing the lap joint of the fittings.

Running the water for a bit should flush the standing water in the pipes (which if the lead is coming from your pipes will reduce the lead). Has to be done regularly before consumption to matter of course.

Shit. I live in a VERY old building (built in 1916). No idea what type of pipe they were using. I already do have a good lead filter on my kitchen faucet.

Are you worried about exposure from things like showering and brushing your teeth?

FWIW, we lived in a house built around 1912 and we're worried about it, but did lots of testing and things were fine. I think it depends a lot.

Lead soldered copper didn't become popular until the 1960's or 70's. Before that it would have been galvanized pipes threaded together.

Maybe where you live, but here every 50s house has soldered copper.

For reference, what I said is based on my experience in California and Oregon. Where are you that you see lead soldered copper in 50s homes?

My house had pex, fitted copper, soldered copper and galvanized from fixes over the years.

Seattle and Michigan: though, no guarantees they are lead soldered, I didn't check

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