Lead solder on copper pipes - reliable lead testing kit?

[Nope2024]

Trying quite hard not to spiral here as I'm 8 months pregnant. Lived here under 5 years. We have water hammer and been lifting up floorboards and the copper water pipes are joined with silvery solder, which I'm guessing is lead. The house is 1950s ex-council and the family before were here for decades, and we have no idea when the pipes were put in. The gas pipes are still lead so I'm not really ruling anything out.

Is there a reliable water testing kit for lead? DH reckons the mains coming in isn't lead so water board unlikely to test indoors as it's our responsibility.

The water board tells me my water hardness is somewhere between slightly hard to very hard, so I'm praying that this has gone some way to protecting us but...basically I'm terrified. The water hammer's dislodged a load of bluey green crap bits so I figure they're copper. But the possibility of lead solder is freaking me out. The expense, inconvenience of having to re-plumb the house so it's safe for us and for baby is a nightmare.

Read this.
https://www.dwi.gov.uk/lead-in-drinking-water/#:~:text=A%20less%20common%20cause%20of,solder%20on%20drinking%20water%20pipes.

@JohnAmendAll Thanks - I'm aware that there shouldn't be lead because it isn't legal practice, just that there's been some...interesting DIY activity in this house from previous owners so just want to test the levels to see if it really is lead solder and how screwed we are. It's very, very likely they bought whatever solder they could afford and did the work themselves. The soldering isn't very neat, so may not have been a professional that did it.

I can't help with testing kits, I"ve never done it. All solder looks the same to me, it"s all 'silvery'. From that diagram, the pipe from boundary stop cock to the main house stopcock is often blue plastic mdpe. In olden days this was often lead. What's yours? Then there will be pipework from the house stopcock to your kitchen sink. Assuming this is the only water you drink (?). How long is that run? Often the stopcock is under the kitchen sink, or close by. At very worst, the joints in this section would need to be redone.

lead pipes for drinking water was made illegal in 1969
lead solder was banned in 1987

there are some topics where paranoia is justified, but the risk of exposure to the quantity of lead actually in contact with flowing water in a soldered joint is not one of them

however, as paranoia rules the world, use one of these :

3M LeadCheck Swabs, Instant Lead Test, 8-Pack : Amazon.co.uk: Everything Else

You are in more danger from falling satellites than you are from the absolutely minute quantity of lead solder in your drinking water pipework.

Chill out.

You can still buy lead solder, but its not supposed to be used on drinking water now. Fine on anything else. To look at nonlead/ lead solder look exactly the same, so im not sure how anyone could tell which is which ?

The blue/ green stuff that has been dislodged is probably the remains of flux in the pipes.

like the above poster said its a non issue….. you have more chance of tripping downstairs and breaking your neck. 😕