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Lead and Your Home

Copper pipes?  Important Information

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We Want To Know

Please tell us of your experiences with WASA, the Department of Health, and other governmental entities relating to this problem.  We will not reveal your identity, but rather use the information to inform our efforts to achieve healthy drinking water for children now!!!

Please also share links, news, solutions, website ideas and comments at mail@lobbyline.com.

Thank you.

Examples of stories that prove useful.

Some residents are not being informed that the public copper pipes leading onto their private property could be soldered with lead.  WASA officials have been unable to indicate what kind of material has been used to seal together the copper pipes leading to over 100,000 homes.  WASA officials in some cases have not been explicitly offering lead in water testing kits to homeowners with copper pipes, although such homes could have lead soldering.

Some Department of Health officials misinformed me that boiling water would rid it of lead.  That is clearly untrue.

Kids and Lead

Of particular concern to many Washington residents is the impact that lead poisoning can have on children under age 6, unborn children through their pregnant mothers,and infants through formula mixtures and breast milk.

According to Dr. Jerome Paulson, pediatrician, George Washington University and the Mid Atlantic Center for Children's Health and the Environment, in testimony before the City Council of Washington D.C on the matter of lead in drinking water (see here), on February 4, 2004.  Lead poisoning is a public health problem (although lead from paint poses the greatest danger). 

Highlights from testimony of Dr. Paulson:

Lead is a cumulative neurotoxin in children; small amounts build up and have the potential to cause brain damage.  Children drink more water per pound per day than adults; the absorb a larger proportion of lead than do adults and lead has the greatest potential for dame in the immature rain; prior to birth and in the first few year of birth  Also at risk are the offspring of pregnant women.  The risk is related to how much builds in the body The effects range from attention deficit to language problems.  The effects are irreversible.  There is disagreement about the levels that cause damage in children.  See Dr. Paulson's criteria for who should be tested.