Are you looking for natural ways to eliminate lead from your drinking water? Then you’ve reached the correct location. Lead is a naturally occurring element with several uses, but it is also an extremely hazardous toxin. Corrosion of pipes and other plumbing components can carry a lead into drinking water.
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigation has found that “lead exposure to children is through paint, dust, soil, air, and food, as well as drinking water.” According to the EPA, “Drinking water can account for up to 20% of a person’s overall lead exposure. Drinking water can account for 40 percent to 60 percent of a baby’s lead exposure if they are only fed mixed formula.”
Even modern buildings with supposedly “lead-free” piping can have up to 8% lead content. Homes built before 1986 are more likely to have lead pipes. Lead may still enter our tap water due to corrosion of newer and older plumbing systems induced by hot, high-acidic, or mineral-light water. Ingestion of lead can have various health consequences for children and pregnant women, which is why it’s critical to keep lead levels in drinking water as low as possible.
If you’re concerned about lead concentration in your drinking water, there are some natural ways to purify water at home. Drinking water systems, although not all, can also eliminate lead from tap water. This blog will assist you in how to remove lead from drinking water naturally. These techniques filter out various contaminants from your water supply, ensuring that you’re only drinking safe water when you fill a glass. Today’s blog will address the following topics:
- How to naturally remove lead from drinking water
- How does lead get into drinking water?
- How to test your water for lead?
- Health effects due to lead in drinking water
What is lead in drinking water?
Lead is a bluish-gray most prevalent heavy metal, with 13 mg/kg in the Earth’s crust. Lead is present in every aspect of our surroundings. Human activities like burning fossil fuels, mining, and manufacturing account for a large portion of the lead in the atmosphere.
Lead is present in a variety of materials. Lead-based paint, batteries, ammunition, metal items including solder and pipes, and X-ray shielding devices are still on the market. Due to health concerns, the quantity of lead in gasoline, paints and ceramic materials, caulking, and pipe solder has been lowered in recent years. As a result, we now have significantly less lead in our blood than 30 years ago. Lead exposure has been linked to severe health effects, including kidney difficulties, high blood pressure, and a higher risk of cardiovascular mortality.
How does lead get involved in drinking water?
When plumbing components containing lead deteriorate, lead can enter drinking water systems, especially when the water has high acidity or low mineral content, which corrodes pipes and fixtures. Lead pipes, taps, and fixtures are the most prevalent sources of lead exposure in drinking water. Lead pipes connecting the residence to the water main, also known as services lines, are often the most significant source of lead in the water in homes.
According to the Journal of American Waterworks Association, in 2016, an estimated 6-10 million people might be at risk of lead exposure due to old lead lines that have never been updated. Lead pipes are more common in older towns and residences constructed before 1986. Brass or chrome-plated brass faucets and plumbing with lead solder are replacing lead service lines in the new modern world. Chemical interaction between water and your plumbing causes corrosion, which is the dissolving or wearing away metal.
How to test your drinking water for lead?
To determine if your tap water contains lead, contact your municipal water supplier, test your home water with a lead water test kit, and see if your residence has lead pipes or is supplied by lead pipes. Because lead has no odor or taste in water, testing is the only way to determine if your home’s water supply is contaminated.
The lead water test kit is simple to use, requiring only the placement of a test strip in a sample of water. Unfortunately, most home test kits will tell you if your water is lead-free or not. They aren’t willing to inform you about water quality or how much lead is in your water. The EPA suggests having a test done by a state-certified laboratory to get an accurate estimate of how much lead is in your water.
A scratch test may be used to determine if your pipes contain any lead. Scratch any corrosion built upon a pipe with a coin or the flat edge of a screwdriver gently. The pipe is almost certainly composed of lead if the scraped region appears glossy and silver. While this test might help you determine if your home’s water supply is at risk of lead contamination, it’s always preferable to have your pipes professionally inspected by a water specialist or a certified plumber.
Municipal water suppliers are obligated by law to test the water quality supply regularly, and if you ask for the findings, they must provide them. On the other hand, a municipal water test will not indicate whether a lead is entering your water through your house plumbing. Thus a home lead test is also suggested. Additionally, the homeowner should test the water for lead concentration and other toxins if you use well water.
How to remove lead from drinking water naturally?
When set up for removing lead, reverse osmosis, distillation, and activated carbon filtering may remove lead from drinking water. Locating and replacing any lead-containing pipes or plumbing fixtures can also eliminate lead. However, because water may pass through lead pipes before reaching your home plumbing system, the best water filter for lead elimination can provide helpful protection and provide you with peace of mind.
Filtration systems can be constructed as point-of-use (POU) or whole-house filters. However, point-of-use filters are preferred for lead reduction. If lead is present in your house plumbing or comes from municipal water, installing a point-of-use filter on each faucet can protect you from lead exposure. A whole-house filter, on the other hand, would only protect you against lead in municipal water. Reverse osmosis systems, water distillers, and carbon filters may all assure that the water you drink is lead-free. They all are point-of-use filters.
Reverse osmosis
It is frequently asked that does reverse osmosis remove lead? Reverse osmosis filter is the best water filter for lead removal and the most common and cost-effective technology for lowering lead levels and removing them from drinking water. In the reverse osmosis (RO) system, pressure forces unfiltered water through a semipermeable membrane. Small holes in the membrane stop impurities such as lead while allowing pure water to pass through to the other side. It is one of the natural ways to purify water at home.
Installing the best water filter for lead in your house will keep lead out of your drinking water, making it safer for you and your family. It’s also a low-maintenance system, which means you can put it up quickly.
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Carbon filters
Carbon filters are made up of activated carbon with many pores all over its surface and infrastructure. Chemicals and other impurities are trapped when water passes through the activated carbon, and clean water emerges on the other side. It is also one of the natural ways to purify water at home.
It’s worth noting that not all carbon filters are capable of removing lead. They can only filter lead if they’ve been certified to do so, which needs carbon that’s been specially treated to remove lead or a combination of carbon and another filtration medium created and certified to remove lead. Ensure that your filter has been tested and certified by the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) or the Water Quality Association (WQA) certification.
Distillation
Distillation is one of the earliest ways of purifying water and is still the most efficient against inorganic impurities such as lead. Any additional materials with a more incredible boiling point than water are removed as well.
Water distillation is done in a distiller, a device that sits on your counter and runs on electricity. To operate a distiller, fill the machine’s boiling chamber with water and turn it on. As the water boils, it will evaporate before condensing and passing through a tube into a clean pitcher.
Distilling water is adequate because most pollutants can notch the gaseous stage and are left behind in the boiling chamber. When lead is boiled in water, it usually does not convert into a gas, and any contaminant that does would be difficult to return to liquid form with the water particles. As a result, a distiller system is one of the most incredible water treatment solutions for completely removing lead from your supply.
How to remove lead from drinking water naturally by boiling?
Distillation, which involves boiling, can remove a significant quantity of lead from drinking water. It’s reasonable to assume that boiling water may remove at least a small amount of lead.
When you boil water, the only thing that happens is that some of it evaporates, saving you a greater concentration of lead in the same volume of hot water. Water leaves the boiling chamber as gas and condenses into a clean pitcher, which allows the removal of lead and other heavy metals. However, when you boil water, it merely rises in the air as a gas, and you won’t be able to collect it in its distilled state.
However, you can filter out lead using your distillation technique. Fill a pot with cold water to one-third capacity and insert a tiny pot within. Place the pot over high heat and cover it with an upside-down lid. When water evaporates, it rises to the top of the pot lid and condenses, where it runs down the center of the lid and drips into the little pot, leaving the lead in the main pot.
By replacing lead service lines or reducing plumbing lines
The most effective and long-term strategy to decrease lead in your drinking water is to replace any lead service lines to your house as well as any interior lead pipes or fittings.
The municipality or water company provider is usually responsible for the service line up to the edge of the sidewalk beside the road in most localities. If a portion of the service line from the sidewalk beside the road to the house is made of lead, the homeowner is responsible for replacing lead service lines.
You may still have lead concerns if only a portion of the lead pipes is replaced. Due to the disturbance caused by the change in municipal pipes, some lead particles may detach from the remaining lead pipe for months. During this period, it’s critical to keep taking precautions to limit your exposure, such as cleansing your pipes after the water has sat in them for a few hours or using a treatment device.
Ion exchange method
The ion exchange method is one of the most influential heavy metal removal techniques. It is particularly successful in removing various heavy metals. Heavy metals like lead have been effectively recovered from wastewater utilizing ion exchange employing polymeric resins. Lead may be in a precipitated non-ionic colloidal form if the pH of the water is more than seven, which cannot be removed by an ion-exchange method. Physical filtration is required for this sort of lead, which may necessitate the use of a submicron filter.
Health effects due to lead in drinking water
The primary issue with lead is that it’s bio-accumulative, which means it can build up in the human body over time even if you’re drinking tiny amounts of it and can cause serious health issues. Because lead’s physical and behavioral consequences occur at lower exposure levels in children than in adults, young children, babies, and fetuses are susceptible to lead. A youngster can be affected by a dosage of lead that would have no impact on an adult. Low levels of exposure in children have been associated with central and peripheral nervous system damage, learning problems, shorter height, reduced hearing, and altered blood cell formation and function.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advises that public health measures be taken when the lead level in a child’s blood reaches five micrograms per deciliter (g/dL) or higher.
Adults may tolerate more considerable amounts of lead exposure, but they are still susceptible to its negative consequences, including cardiovascular diseases, renal and reproductive issues. Lead exposure can cause miscarriage, stillbirth, early delivery, and low birth weight in unborn kids, putting pregnant women and their unborn babies in even greater danger.
Conclusions
You may lessen the danger of lead contamination in tap water by using these natural ways to purify the water. You now have to know complete knowledge about how to remove lead from drinking water naturally. As you can see, it’s as simple as installing the appropriate filter in your home to ensure that nothing harmful enters your water supply. A reverse osmosis water filter is the best water filter for lead elimination.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Some others question’s answers for our readers that might be helpful for reading.
How many lead levels are safe in drinking water?
The lead level in public drinking water has an Action Level of 15 ug/L (15 micrograms per liter) set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). One-millionth of a gram of material per liter of solution is referred to as a microgram per liter. A teaspoon of sugar in 2,100,000 gallons of water is roughly the same as au g/L of sugar in water.
Does Brita filter remove lead from water?
Yes, Brita filters can remove lead from drinking water. To efficiently minimize pollutants present in tap water, many household filtering devices have been created. Brita Faucet Systems and Brita Longlast Filters assist in removing 99 percent of lead from tap water, as well as other toxins such as chlorine, asbestos, benzene, ibuprofen, and bisphenol A. These Brita filters are used to offer safer drinking and cooking water if your household water supply includes lead levels that exceed the EPA’s acceptable standard.
What are the symptoms caused by lead?
According to the EPA, lead is the cause of severe health effects, especially for pregnant women, babies, and young children. Lead exposure can cause the following health effects:
IQ decreases
Swings in mood
Problems with behavior and learning
Anemia
growth stops
reproduction problems
