Water Quality Today: Heavy Metals- Lead

Lead in our water supply is certainly something to be concerned about. The reality is if a water line or service tap is old enough, there is a fair chance that it is Lead. I discovered this to be the case at a neighbor’s home just a few years ago. They had excavated near the road to install a cleanout on a sewer line. The sewer happened to be located near enough to the water meter that they uncovered the water service tap. Much to our surprise the tap was a 4 foot long Lead pipe that fed from the water main in the street to the water metered that served their home; scary to say the least. Asheville water Maintenance responded quickly to the discovery and replaced the tap with 48 hours.

Lead is a very toxic substance even in low quantities. It is pervasive throughout the environment due to misuse and poor management. Lead toxicity causes very serious health disorders as well a death. It is the responsibility of a Water Purveyors to ensure the quality of the water they distribute to a community.
Aside from the potential of a Lead water service tap there are other potential sources of Lead contamination between the water meter and the home as well as within the home or business. Some of the more obvious are:

-Pre 1985, copper piping was installed using solder that was mostly Lead 
-PVC piping that carries hot water (or warm for that matter) leaches a considerable amount of Lead from the piping.
- Older faucets are also a risk for higher Lead content.

I highly recommend taking responsibility for the water you drink, shower & bathe in. The only way to be sure of the quality of your water is to care for it yourself. It’s has been shown that even bottled water can’t be trusted to be any better than the water from your tap. It is also far less expensive to do point of entry or point of use filtration than it is to buy bottled or filtered water. The added benefit is that you know the water you shower in is also filtered. I have found that most people only think about the quality of the water they drink. It is as important if not more important to have clean water to shower/bathe in and cook with. it ahs been documented that the body takes in as much as 10 times the amount of toxins from a ten minute shower as it would from drinking the daily recommended amount of water. This is done through dermal absorption and vapor inhalation. You would be amazed at how much of a difference using a shower filter to remove heavy metals and chlorine can have on the health of your skin and hair.

It is well worth the cost of investing in a filtration system that fits your needs. You'll notice the difference immediately.
There are many options out there, some of which are a great value and perform very well others that will cost you more than they are worth. Contact me for recommendation.

Next week we'll discuss Mercury.

AP

www.AskAquaPro.com
AquaPro@AskaquaPro.com 
www.AquaProSolutions.com, www.AquaEnvi.org, www.AshevilleGreenPlumbing.com,

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