High lead levels in my tap water, am pregnant, and so worried.

[Chocolateporridge]

After a leak was discovered to be coming from an old lead supply pipe I asked environmental health to test our drinking water. They've confirmed today that the levels are too high, 14ppm when the highest should be 10ppm.

I'm 35 weeks pregnant and I'm so worried. I also have a 4 year old daughter and all our drinking water has been coming through this poisonous pipe.

Obviously now we're drinking bottled water and I've asked my GP for a blood test, but I'm so worried that I've done permanent damage to my children.

Does anybody have any experience of this?

No experience sorry, but there is information on lead pipes on the water providers web sites. this is united utilities but your own water company will have info.

Have you made arrangements to change the pipes?

Be careful of the amount of sodium in the bottled water for the 4 yo and the baby.

Thinking further, there used to be lead in everything so try not to worry yourself too much.
Lead was in paint, and petrol, as well as pipes in houses.

None of us would ideally drink water that has been through lead pipes, but even if you have been doing it for years, it's unlikely that it will have done any of you any significant harm; lots of houses where we live still have lead pipes somewhere in the system, and the water company just gives advice to run the tap before using it, including if it's going into a kettle or saucepan, as lead isn't removed by boiling.

Before the 70s the pipes in most houses were ALL lead, and our parents' generation and the ones before them lived with it all their lives; there even used to be lead in the paint on cots and children's toys...

So although it's not a nice thought it is really, really unlikely that any of you - you, the baby and your four year old - have been damaged, so try not to worry too much

Thank you so much for all the reassurance. I've got an appointment for a blood test tomorrow afternoon but they don't want to test my 4yo dd for some reason The Council seems to be treating it very lightly but I still feel really worried.

I grew up in a house with lead pipes, and so did my siblings. didn't seem to do us any harm.

my mum always used to flush the loo and run the taps for a couple of mins every morning, to clear out the water that had been sitting in the pipes overnight (and had the most lead). water that runs straight from the mains through the pipe to the tap doesn't have time to pick up lead. Only still water does.

Hello,

@Chocolateporridge I know this is now a very old post. How did everything go with you lead pipes? Did you get your and your child’s blood lead level tested? Finding myself in a similar situation

Oh RakuHare12 I'm really sorry that you're going through this.
The lovely surgeon who delivered my son tested his umbilical cord and there was a high level of lead in it. I was really upset but was quickly overwhelmed by breastfeeding difficulties, baby getting bronchiolitis etc etc and then post natal depression so we shelved the iron issue until we were less stressed and in the end we decided not to take it up with the council. It turned out that they had known about the lead pipe when they'd carried out a previous repair to it but they literally just buried it again 🙄
We subsequently moved house to another very old property, had the pipes tested, and all was fine there.
With regards to my children's health, there are no obvious issues although both have had bladder issues which I sometimes wonder about whether they're related. There are so many unwanted chemicals around us, in the air, our food etc anyway though.
Please try not to worry too much, like a previous poster said, many people grew up with lead pipes and were fine, but your first port of call is environmental health for advice.

@Chocolateporridge thank you so much for your reply. Sorry to hear you had a difficult time after your birth and to hear about your DC’s bladder difficulties.
We did manage to get the water tested and it came back high both times, it did drop when it was flushed but obviously we’ve only just started doing this after becoming aware that the pipes were lead. I feel so awful thinking that the water was likely poisoning my DS for the first 2.5 years not to mention my pregnancy. I’m going to ask to get a blood lead level test from the GP but terrified it’s going to come back high. It’s reassuring to know your children have shown no effects. It’s such a difficult thing anyway as I suppose there is no way to know if any effects are related or if they would have happened anyway.

Hi @RakuHare12 , I'm in a very similar situation too. Pregnant and have an almost-three-year-old, and after swapping the old lead pipes in our house we've unwittingly increased the lead content in our water (because we disturbed the old lead pipe) - a test last week found it's now three times the safe limit. We've been drinking it for 6 months, and there was probably an extremely high lead content immediately after the plumbing work in November.
I'm very worried.
Did you get the blood tests done? My son and I had ours done last weekend, but the results haven't come through yet. Finding it hard to cope with the anxiety of waiting. Keep thinking I've noticed more stomach upsets and behavioural changes in my son over the last few months (but it could just be normal toddler stuff, of course!).

Hi @cameraobscura85 , sorry to hear you are going through the same thing. It’s very worrying I know. We’ve had the pipes replaced now and are awaiting DS blood test (appointment isn’t until next month) and also awaiting our water to be retested.
Did you have all of the lead replaced? I didn’t know the levels could stay high after they had been removed. Have you asked the water company to check your mains connection isn’t lead too?
I feel just as awful about it as you do and am also watching DS’s behaviour and worrying about every little thing. I have started using low sodium bottled water for him in the house and have tried to give him a high iron and calcium diet ( I read that could be helpful, esp as lead can cause anaemia). Not sure how much it actually helps but it makes me feel a bit better. I hope that your blood tests come back soon, waiting is difficult, hopefully it won’t be too much longer!

Thanks @RakuHare12, and that’s good thinking about the high calcium/iron diet.

We had the lead pipes replaced inside our house as we were renovating after a house fire (it’s been a challenging year!), but didn’t change the pipe that runs under our drive and connects to the water main. So the plumber cut the old lead pipe where it enters the house to join it with plastic, and the disturbance/raw, uncalcified, cut part of the lead is likely to be what’s causing the high levels now. So stupid that we didn’t think of it.

Anyway, I guess there’s nothing we can do but wait. Fingers crossed we’ll hear back soon.

Really hope all turns out okay for you and your DS too.

Can’t believe we don’t get more of a warning about the dangers of lead pipes (or that the plumber didn’t give us a heads up…!).

@RakuHare12 and@cameraobscura85 I realise this is an old post but I just wondered how you both got on? I've found myself in a very similar situation, 22 weeks pregnant with my first baby and anxiously awaiting a lead blood test after finding out we have elevated levels of lead in our drinking water 😢

Hi @AHK1988, so our blood tests came back fine, toddler is now a smart nearly 5 year old and baby’s doing great. I got told that it’s very, very rare for elevated lead levels to show up in blood tests in these kind of situations - in fact, the doctors at the hospital said they’d never encountered it. So I’m sure everything will be okay for you and baby. But I remember how worrying it was at the time! As if pregnancy anxiety isn’t bad enough, hey. If it’s any help, it’s a very distant memory for me - I’d almost forgotten it happened.

Hi @cameraobscura85 thank you so much for your response I can't tell you how much it's helped! I'm absolutely delighted to hear you were all fine and are doing well 😊Fingers crossed my results are ok too! Thank you again!

Thankfully my blood test came back as normal, thanks again @cameraobscura85 and if I can be of help to anyone going through a similar situation please do reach out.

Great news @AHK1988 ! Bet you’ll pretty much forget all about it now. Sending all good wishes for the rest of your pregnancy

Hi ladies just found out our pipes are lead and we have lived in this house now for 18 months. I have 2 ds 3 and 4 years old. Im booking blood tests. Im so upset about it all x

@Jeansgirl22 i know it’s worrying but try not to - there are lead pipes in lots and lots of old houses and most cause no problems as they’ve been lined with a build up of limescale over the years. Have you had the water tested by your water company? They’ll do it for free and if the levels are low you wont need to worry

@Jeansgirl22 please try not to worry, @cameraobscura85 is absolutely right in that just because you have lead pipes doesn't mean you will have it in your system. I had a similar situation when pregnant, my blood tests indicated I had no lead in my system despite living in the house for 2 years. A whole healthy family had lived there for 50 years prior! I suggest you get a free water test from your water board too. We got a private water test initially as I was freaking out, which indicated level 7 - high but below the national limit of 10, then Scottish Water finally came out months later and performed the test for free, at that point we had an even lower level (no idea why but it could have been because the plumber removed some old pipes when we got our bathroom replaced?). Either way the blood test is the important bit. I think you will all be fine. I've since spoken to numerous people about my experience including our plumber and they all say that loads of properties in the uk have lead pipes and that the build up within the pipes means lead doesn't leach into the water. Good luck, remain calm and let us know how you get on - I remember the anxiety it caused me so want to reassure you as much as possible!