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Comment by FugeDaws | Hacker News Reader

yet as late as the 19th century lead was in make up

The time it takes us from finding out something is dangerous to finally doing something about it is astonishingly long. Lead, Asbestos, CFCs, PFAS, etc

Yes. Humans in general are very bad at dealing with delayed consequences.

Typically because there are entrenched financial interests incentivized not to change.

And because our brains evolved in very different environments - where serious hidden delayed consequences were very rare, and life was short & cheap.

And we have a President currently trying to bring back clean, beautiful asbestos (it's still used in a few places actually). A wonder material, good for protecting against hot stuff.

The EPA is currently reviewing its ban on asbestos.

It's not uncommon for the pipe supplying mains water to (older) houses in the UK to still be lead.

Its not really common either. much as been replaced. In areas where it is common the pipes are often old enough that the lead is covered with limescale sealing it off from the water (lead pipes would now be many decades old), and I have read that water supplies in some areas have additives to seal off lead too. You can also have your supply tested (free AFAIK).

Does lead leach into the water like plastic pipes do ?

Yes, depending on alkalinity and so forth --- see Flint, Michigan in the news a while back, or on-going efforts to remove solder containing lead from the plumbing aisle.

Yes, the only reason we are ok with some old lead pipes left is because they're coated in scale build up. As long as that's not disturbed it's not dangerous anymore.

Old lead pipes had hard untreated water flowing through them. The lead pipes would internally (normally) be coated with salts, and the lead did not (normally) leach into water. But soft water does not have calcium or magnesium in high enough quantities. Also, even with hard water, pressure changes could loosen the scale deposits.

Microplastic risk is not anywhere close to lead, we should not even be discussing these two things in the same paragraph.

Lead is bad because it mimics calcium and iron in our body, binding to proteins, sneaking into bones, causes anemia, disrupts brain function...

Plastic is inert, it is made of long chains of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. These long chains do not break down easily. Microplastic, while it does not pass through the body, and can accumulate in organs, its impact is still under study. We aren't ingesting high doses.

BUT, bad pipes may leach other stuff. Some additives in certain plastics seem to mimic hormones and potentially disrupt them. Some additives are carcinogenic. (but only in high doses I guess). Certified modern pipes are safer.

Thanks for that.

Our whole town is basically running on plastic pex pipe, always freaked me out.

Water pipes are plastic now, funnily enough.

We live in an older house in the US. We got a note in the mail from the city that pipe from the main to the house might be lead. They looked at building plans/ permits. The length is (15ft) so the impact is minimal if it’s actually lead. The piping inside is copper and pvc for drains. But we had the water tested anyway. Lead isn’t good for you.

https://www.wgbh.org/news/health/2024-11-19/thousands-of-mas...

WIth the right mix of minerals in water it's generally safe, but like in Flint municipalities can screw up that content of ions/minerals in water and leach it out (remove the protective patina)

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