To think the pipes should be replaced if they are indeed made of lead

[Honeybee85]

DH and I recently started to get suspicions that the water pipes in our home might be made of lead. Our home was build in the 1970s and using lead pipes was common here until the early 1980s. We have a baby who is on formula milk and we used boiled tap water (which is perfectly normal in this country) to prepare his milk before we were aware of the possibility of lead. Obviously we use mineral water from the supermarket for now. Plumber is coming here next week to check the pipes. Yesterday DH and I were discussing what to do if the pipes are indeed made of lead.
From my point of view, we should replace them because I don’t want to depend completely on water from the supermarket as we have potable water here plus we would still use the water to shower, wash clothes etc and that makes me uncomfortable about possible health risks. Have to add though I am a bit of a hypochondriac by nature (lighthearted) and DH is very laidback. He thinks the replacement is going to cost us a lot and we should just use mineral water for DS’s bottles and our tea/ drinks and not replace them.

What do you think think?

Disclaimer: English isn’t my native language so please be kind about any linguistic mistakes I made here / will make.

We live in a 1920s built house and when we moved in as we had a young one, we got the water people out to check our water for this reason. All was within limits. Can you ask for a check to put your mind at ease?

Raindancer411 thats a great idea in case our fears are true! Thank you.

Lead pipes are not an issue if you let the water run before filling your glass or kettle so that you use water that has not been standing in the pipe.

Also, by now the pipes will have a layer of limescale so the water doesn’t touch the pipes anyway.

You really really don’t need to worry about showering etc.

I don't know where you live, but here (US) you can buy a kit to test your water for lead for $10 and any hardware store. I wouldn'tt pay a plumber for that.

@steff13

We just wanted to be sure and then explore our options. Plumber costs about $100 and we think it’s worth to pay it to be absolutely sure.
Thanks for the suggestion though 🙂

You shouldn't make formula up with mineral water. Check the limits for mineral content.

@drspouse I didn’t know that!
Perhaps a stupid question but would boiling the mineral water make a difference?

I don’t think it’s recommended to give little ones bottled water so you might be better off with running the tap. Hope you get it resolved

@Awishyourheartmakes

Thank you, just googled it.
I think for now we will just buy ready made, canned formula milk.

It’s a very current issue in the news here in Canada. One current line of thinking is it’s pointless if the city pipes are lead.

@fallfallfall

Yes, you are right about that one.
Fortunately all the old lead city pipes have already been replaced in the early 2000’s so we don’t have to worry about that

When we moved into our home when my son was a baby we had lead pipes and I was concerned about the water so I rang the local water board and they came out and tested it free of charge to see if it was safe for us to drink. It was a good few years ago now but it might be worth a try?

I grew up in a house with lead pipes, and as a pp said they were furred up with limescale so no water actually touched the lead. I'm sure if you test the water you'll find its totally fine. I think bottled water isn't necessarily recommended for formula because it often has high levels of sodium? But one of my children was 100% formula fed using bottled water and he's fine so... try and relax!

We had lead pipes in an old house but we couldn’t replace them, the main that ran under the houses was lead and there was a rule if I remember about not being allowed to weld copper to lead. We had to leave alone, they were happy to test levels though

Thanks everyone for the suggestions so far!
I am happy to hear it’s not immediately a matter of ‘fork out to replace in case of lead or move away’ . I think we will just wait for the plumber next week before starting to panick and calculate Our finances again. Surely now I will ask him when they are lead if they are limescaled and the idea of asking the watercompany to come over to check the levels is also a very good idea.

By the way, I checked the bottle of mineral water we used for the formula and it said it was safe to use for preparing formula. So we’ll keeping using that one until next week.
I’ll be back after the plumbers visit with an update in case anybody is interested 😉

London is chokker with old Victorian houses with lead pipes (and Edwardian and probably post-war).

Run the tap especially in the morning. The inside of the pipes develops a oxidised surface that stops lead getting into the water, and the limescale further coats it. There is no public health issue in London - not due to old pipes, anyway.

It wouldn't be in the commercial interests of the plumber to recommend changing the pipes would it............??

@blouseandskirt

I would die to live in a gorgeous Victorian house in London even with old lead pipes

On a rather serious note: I recently became aware that too much lead in water can be damaging for babies brain as it is developing really fast and decrease IQ. I am not too scared for my own health but want DS to have the best start in life

@BlouseAndSkirt

Honesty is immensely important here, so much that you can literally leave a wallet full of money here on the street and 99% sure it will be returned with all the money left untouched. So I am not too worried about shady this plumbers here trying to take advantage of my worries but you are right, back home I definitely would!

Water companies don't apply their regulations retrospectively in the UK. So if your home was built before 1966 (when the regulations changed) and the house and the service pipe (from the public main in the street) has never been replumbed they will still be lead/concrete/asbestos depending on what the plumbing materials were at the time of original installation.
Most water companies have a program of replacing or relining the public main but internal plumbing and the service pipe are your responsibility.
The quickest way to test for lead pipes is to scratch the pipe. If it's full but goes shiny when scratched it's usually lead.
Generally in hard water areas the limescale coats the interior of the pipe forming a barrier.
Allowing the kitchen cold tap to run for a few minutes to prevent standing water in the pipes coming in contact with the lead is a good idea. When you run the tap allow a litre of water per each metre distance from the road to the tap.

Forgot to mention that there's about 10 times the regulations governing the treatment and supply of tap water compared with bottled/spa/mineral water.

We had lead pipes and were bottle feeding ds at the time. Get the water company out to do a water analysis to see if it's over limits. Ours was, so the water company replaced their part of the pipe. No charge to us. Also, don't use mineral water to make up bottles! It's not good for baby. Either buy bottled tap water, or the best thing to do is to run your tap for 10mins to flush it through before drinking. The water sitting in the pipe long periods will have had more time to absorb lead. The water straight from the mains will be clean.

You can also install a lead filter under your sink. If you need to.

@MrsMoastyToasty

Thank you for your explanation. We don’t live in the UK and thankfully all old lead pipes on streetlevel have already been replaced here years ago .

I have also read about the scratching test and also about testing the sound of the pipe by slightly hitting it with another piece of metal like a spoon but I still find it difficult to estimate if it’s lead or not. I just hope the plumber next week will say it’s a different material and we can just drink the tap water again without any concerns 🙏

Bottled water is fine to use for formula, you just have to make sure that the levels of sodium etc are below a certain amount.