Lead solder used on water pipes

[Onetap]

Yes. The OP is talking about his lead pipe; your post reads like he can get someone to replace it free.

It still reads that way to me.

[Rod]

I have to ask whether using grey water collected from lead flashed roofs could contribute significant lead to, say, the vegetable plot?

In cattle (apparently - for I certainly didn't know this):

"Feed contamination is also a potential problem, indeed contaminated rice bran from Burma was the primary source of the last major outbreak of lead poisoning in the UK in 1989."

[Steve Firth]

Umm no. The problem of lead in food stuffs was principally from the consumption of sapa as a flavouring agent in Roman cooking. Sapa was created by boiling a grape must in a saucepan for hours on end to concentrate it.

The Romans discovered that the end product could be made even sweeter by boiling the must in a lead saucepan and this became a standard way of preparing sapa. Unfortunately the sweet flavour was due to the formation of lead acetate (lead sugar) which is much more soluble than lead oxides. As with most lead compounds it is a potent toxin.

I suspect for the man in the street unable to afford expensive preserves and sweeteners it presented little hazard, but emperors presumably consumed "quite a bit" of food flavoured with sapa.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

There won't be many houses around with lead internal pipes - but plenty still have lead for the incoming main.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Never drink from pewter mugs eh?

[The Natural Philosopher]

Almost certainly. Aren't brassicas hevay metal concentrators?

And mercury in tuna. Of course I eat tuna three times a day - don't you?

[Rod]

I keep brassica consumption down because they are goitrogens. :-)

And it seems unlikely that we will be importing Burmese rice bran for a while.

Without the mercury, how would you know when it is cooked?

[Onetap]

Quite a few in my experience. For people can't do DIY plumbing, employing a plumber for a re-pipe is a huge expense. They won't do it until the lead springs a pin-hole leak. Lots of lead pipe lurking behind toilets, basins and baths.

And if it is completely impervious to water, why do old lead pipes develop pin-hole leaks? It doesn't happen with copper or plastic.

- but plenty

Yes, less accessible.

[Onetap]

PS; I meant lead/tin soldered copper pipe, rather than lead.

The fact remains, there is no legal acceptable lower-limit for lead ingestion and lead solder has been banned for potable water use (meaning all H&C services) for yonks. The builder can still be held liable for the replacement costs, assuming they're still in business.

[A.Lee]

Unfortunately that is not true. I have had to change 2 15mm copper pipe lengths recently as they were corroded through - tiny pinhole leaks. I think it will get worse in coming years as copper pipe is so thin now that it will corrode through so much faster. Old pipe from 20 years ago is easily twice as thick as new pipe nowadays. Alan.

[Andrew Gabriel]

And in Salmon. I make gravad lax quite often...

[fred]

Do you reckon it was corrosion from original thickness or perhaps a manufacturing defect? Maybe a thin spot or micro spot of a more soluble impurity. I mention it as I've seen some ropey copper on some pipes and capillary elbows.

Back on topic, I still have Tin/Lead plumbing solder and have no guilt using it on my own property in potable water joints, IMO the surface area involved makes the risk of contamination infinitesimal.

[<me9]

At current copper prices it may be cheaper as a DIY job replacing with plastic and cashing in the copper pipe.

[Bill]

In message , fred writes

My thoughts entirely, I always assumed that the main "advantage" of lead free solder was to the plumber rather than the householder. The big advantage to the householder happened years back when they stopped using lead pipes.

[<me9]

It certainly *does* occur with copper!

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It certainly does with copper.

[<me9]

I had problems 40 years ago when working in a bacteriology dept of copper dissolving in distilled water, enough to prevent the growth of bacteria glassware rinsed with the water from pipes where it had stood overnight.

In later work we had problems with high purity water circulated at near poiling point in copper pipes causing the pipes to perforate.

Copper dissolves well in water of low pH, as soft (like distilled) water with dissolved CO2.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

[Stephen Howard]

I can't see there's any advantage to the plumber in technical terms...the flow characteristics of the stuff are lousy by comparison.

Regards,

[Bill]

In message , Stephen Howard writes

I was meaning health wise.

Certainly the little I've used on plumbing has not been as easy to use as leaded although I may get used to it. But I do use a lot on PCBs and thank goodness I have a good supply of leaded solder for that. The lead free is naff, even when using a hotter iron.