Brass kitchen taps

[GFFord]

As my water pipes were found to be lead recently, I've been doing some reading up about lead exposure. Worryingly I found that brass kitchen taps can be a source of lead, as brass contains added lead and this can leach into drinking water, often at dangerous levels.
It was a major news story in Australia, and over there they have the same amounts of lead in their brass as here in the UK so it could likely be an issue here. Stainless steel is safe as far as I know...are brass taps still on sale in the UK or has stainless steel taken over?

Lead water pipes are not quite the risk they are perceived to be. Many brass taps are chrome plated so you wouldn't know they are brass underneath. I don't know about stainless steel finish taps. In areas where it is known there are lead pipes, the water companies add something to the water to counter it (I'm now realising how unhelpfully imprecise my post it!). If you are in a hard water area, the minerals in the water build up in the pipes and stop the lead leaching into the water. If you are worried, run the main cold water for a couple of minutes before you use it for drinking or cooking.

I think it's still worth getting rid of them if you can (some waterboards offer substantial financial aid to replace them) as even tiny amounts of lead can be harmful.