Lead in drinking water can cause severe, long-lasting health effects. Even if your city’s water does not have significant levels of lead in it, old pipes or plumbing fittings could add this metal to your water after it leaves the water treatment plant. You can remove lead from your drinking water with an appropriate filtration system, though, to protect your health and that of your entire family.
What Is Lead in Drinking Water?
Lead is a metal that can contaminate drinking water in multiple ways. First, if you have well water, local lead may seep into your supply, causing elevated levels.
Even if you use municipal water, there could still be lead in the water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires public water treatment facilities to keep lead levels below 15 parts per billion in fewer than 10% of customer’s taps. But you could be among the unlucky ones that have higher levels in your water. If the total number of homes remains under 10%, the EPA does not require action.
Lastly, even if the water entering your home does not contain any significant amounts of lead in it, your home plumbing could affect it. The breakdown of your pipes could add lead to the water. Hot water can wear away lead-containing fittings and pipes. This erosion causes hot water to have higher levels of lead from pipes than cold water. To avoid lead contamination, you need to treat your water at the tap.
Why Is Lead in Drinking Water Bad?
Lead in drinking water can lead to developmental delays and learning disabilities in children and infants. Even adults can have serious effects on their kidneys and blood pressure from regularly drinking lead-containing water.
In fact, this metal can have such detrimental effects that the goal level of lead in water, per the EPA, is zero.
How to Remove Lead from Water?
You can test your water for lead to determine if you have it in your water. However, if your area updates its utilities with new water supply pipes, the construction could increase the lead in your drinking water. Be safe by choosing a filtration system designed to remove lead from drinking water. The Centers for Disease Control recommends reverse osmosis, carbon filters, or distillation to remove lead from the water.
Water Treatment Systems for a Healthier Home
If you want to get rid of lead in drinking water in your home, we have the solutions you need. From reverse osmosis systems to purify water at a single tap to whole-home filtration systems that also soften the water, you can find it all here at Best Home Water Treatment Systems. Contact us today for more information or to schedule a visit.
