To all the tradesman's here. Did anyone ever here anything about old solder being a health risk in public drinking fountains?
We hear about the lead paint scare, The radon scare, the Mold scare, the asbestos scare. etc.

But what about the old houses and schools etc that still have water lines that have old lead solder joints in it? Do you think its because its so big that it would freak out all U.S. citizens especially after the lead paint fear.

Does anyone know any studies that show the level of risk on ingestion of drinking water from lead solder pipes?

I remember the change over when you had to use 50/50 to solder joints. Then it went to Aquapure lead free solder. Any thoughts here?

Here in California, we do not use solder that contains lead. Plumbing supply houses don't even carry those for few years now. Lead is "four letter word" here.

About 15 years ago somebody "discovered" that Price Pfister faucets include certain percentage of lead. Based on this report, PP sales dropped significantly. PP never fully recovered. I believe that was one of the reasons PP moved its operations from Pacoima to Mexico.

Hi all:

The tubing coil in the old drinking fountains have so many lead joints and the water can sit for days/weeks that I have heard that they are a health hazard...

Here is an interesting article about lead in solder/pipes:

Lead Solder Used on Household Water Pipes Can Be Toxic to Infants & Children

In our area we have very old homes... primarily 50/50 solder and copper pipes. These homeowners are advised to run the water for 30 seconds before using the water from the tap (waste water should be collected and used to water plants, etc). Here is another article that discusses that.

Lead in Drinking Water HE-395

Of course, today and for many many years we only use a lead-free solder. For new homes this is great, for older homes it is a start in replacing these bad pipes/joints.

Back in 1986-1990 there was a major push to educate the consumer about the health concerns with the older pipes. You can find tons of articles about this online at www.google.com

Nowadays, because ALL STATES require lead-free solder there is not much being said about it anymore, but fact is that people still need to run the water for a time, in older homes, and most homes, in my area at least, should have filters for removing any lead in the pipes.

Just my thoughts 21boat... ;)

MARK

Thanks from all above.

I started soldering pipes in the late 70s
I still work around lead bend drainage and once in a while do oakum and lead joints. I do keep the old lead bends and make sinkers for fishing.
Mass You may agree on this, I always said you can't beat a good cast hub oakum and lead joint for many reasons. It takes a lot longer but man does it last and support pipe to pipe well.

I as massplummer have homes that are very old. My town was founded in the 1730s. Needless to say we have a ton of lead in the solder joints here.

I remember the push in the mid 80s and we would use the old solder for only boiler installs. I do remember the old solder flowed nicer than the Aqua-pure' lead free" solder.

Mass , I remember now that you mentioned it that the home owners were told to run water for 30 seconds. I think that reminder went to the way side. Which is partly why I posted the question.

As society freaks out about all the warnings and scare IE "PP never fully recovered" and our excavators are dying from radon gas :rolleyes: I would be curious if a T.V. special was done on the "New scare" of old water solder joints that contain lead.

Boy would that scare the moms and dads.

Makes one think:confused:

PS thanks for the input and sites to look at.

Signed 21 boat 'Mark too"

If u what a good scare, try this. If using city water disconnect main water line were it comes into house. Have water coming in chcked for lead. I had this problem when grandson was born with lead poisoning. The water coming out of faucet was only 2 parts per million higher than water from city. Don't remember how high it was coming from sity but was told lead content was too high. Had to install lead filter to get rid off this problem.
Installed one filter at main and this satisfied the inspectors. Try to get city to admit they are problem. Hahaha

Chuck