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If you live in a new home or apartment, or at least one built after 1978, you may think that your children aren't at risk from lead poisoning. After all, your home shouldn't have any lead paint in it, which is one of the bigger risk factors for lead poisoning.
And it shouldn't have lead pipes, another risk factor that is more common in older homes.
These newer homes may still pose a risk though.
According to the CDC, 'lead still can be found in some metal water taps, interior water pipes, or pipes connecting a house to the main water pipe in the street.' Even if these homes don't have lead pipes, lead may be used in lead solder that connects copper pipes.
And according to the EPA, brand new homes can be at risk because "even legally 'lead-free' pipes may contain up to 8 percent lead."
Unless you have your water tested and you know that it doesn't have lead in it, you should take some steps to protect your family and especially younger children, including that you:
- run cold water for 1-2 minutes before using it for drinking, cooking, or for preparing your baby's formula. This is especially important if you haven't used the faucet for more than 6 hours, since that can cause water to sit in the pipes and have higher concentrations of lead.
- run a high volume tap, like the shower, for 5 minutes or more if you think that the pipes from the street to your home may contain lead, and then run the kitchen tap for another 1-2 minutes before using it for drinking or cooking, etc.
Running the water like this flushes out the water that may contain higher levels of lead. And you should use cold water because warm or hot water may have much higher levels of lead than cold water does.
Keep in mind that exposure to lead contaminated water in these 'newer' homes is unlikely to cause high blood lead levels. Infants, because of the 'large volume of water they consume relative to their body size' may be at risk though, especially if you use tap water to prepare their formula. In this situation, run the cold water for a few minutes to flush the pipes.
If you are boiling your water before using it to make your baby's formula, don't make the mistake of using hot tap water before boiling it. Instead, allow cold water to run from the tap for a few minutes and then collect and boil the cold water that runs out of this tap.
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