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Does anyone worry about lead in water/effect on babies?

11 replies

mommie · 25/08/2005 18:14

I recently found out that we have lead pipes in our house. My dd (10 mths) was bottle fed and I am worrying about how much lead is in the water she drinks, esp when it was her main food. I have spoken to Thames Water who said they would come back to me (at their leisure it seems) and we are considering replacing the pipes but it is pretty expensive and quite a big job. Is this a serious cause for concern? Anyone else ever done this?

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fqueenzebra · 25/08/2005 20:25

we had lead contamination in our house. DS1 wasn't bottlefed, so not as much issue. But I have learnt a lot about the issue (we had lead dust in the carpets, paint, etc.)

Do you live in a "hard" or "soft" water area (do you have to descale your kettle, the shower, etc.). If you used cold water from the lead pipes, and it was "hard" water, the amount of lead in the cold tap water in your house will have been very low.

mommie · 25/08/2005 21:24

thanks for yr message. apparently it is a hard water area so that is a bit of a comfort. Thames W. says the lead can't penetrate the limescale! What did you do about your lead problem if I may ask.

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WigWamBam · 25/08/2005 21:27

We have the same problem and my dh (who knows about such things) assures me that if you run the cold tap for a couple of minutes in the morning, before you make your first drink with it, that will get rid of the water that's been standing in the pipes overnight, and which would (potentially) have a higher lead content. The level in the water for the rest of the day would be very low because it's not sitting around in the pipe for long.

fqueenzebra · 25/08/2005 21:33

we moved from our old house that had the lead problem, so not so applicable nowadays.

I think that's about correct, it can't penetrate the fur, and the mineral load in the water is already so high when you have "hard" water, that not much lead can be absorbed into it -- unless it's hot water. Hot water, especially in soft water areas, can absorb a lot of lead (old housing in Glasgow at especially high risk). You can send a water sample off to the county laboratory, btw, pay them a small fee, tell them why you are concerned, and they will write a report for you about how serious a problem (or not) they think the lead levels are in your drinking water supply. Contact your County Council.

Looking back I sometimes wish we had just moved house. But I had conflicting advice and I suppose in the end we did a sort of middle ground set of measures between the different bits of advice.

Can you get the pipes replaced in your house? DH is practical that he did this himself, in our old house, within a month of us moving in (before we realised what a lead problem there might be in the woodwork and carpets).

You can also get your baby a blood test to see what the lead levels are in their blood. This may put your mind at rest. But I warn you that watching them draw blood from your baby is horrendous (DS was also 10 months old when he had his blood taken). Then my GP was very dismissive about the results, which would be considered elevated in the USA (and borderline unhealthy in the UK). GP said something to the effect that all children in our area were probably about the same, it was just an environmental effect, so not to worry (so hey, it's ok if my child is being poisoned as long as it happens to everyone else in the neighbourhood, too, is it??).

So something to watch out for, health professionals may be totally unsupportive if you want to look into this.

fqueenzebra · 25/08/2005 21:38

Sorry, just read your post properly where you said you are considering replacing the pipes. Remember you only need to replace the drinking water pipes, lead pipes to a boiler shouldn't matter, for instance.

If you do go ahead & replace pipes, ask your water company about replacing any remaining lead connection pipes from the mains -- Severen Trent did this for us when we told them we had replaced the lead pipes inside the house and up to a certain point outside, they did a big part of the outside for us for free.

Feffi · 25/08/2005 21:39

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Feffi · 25/08/2005 21:41

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mommie · 25/08/2005 21:50

very good advice. btw feffie when you say expensive, what sort of money do you mean? we are being told that a pipe from mains into house needs to be replaced, which means digging a trench in our front garden etc. (drilling thru concrete). Will def run water tap for longer in mornings and weekends when we have been away in the meantime, and of course dd is on cow's milk soonish. what sort of timescale does work like this take?

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Feffi · 25/08/2005 21:55

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mommie · 25/08/2005 21:59

350 would be a bargain in London, i think, but tks. very useful to know

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Feffi · 25/08/2005 22:04

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