“The levels of lead detected at UNC exceeded those known to cause elevated blood lead in children, as established by the Centers for Disease Control, and even levels causing acute lead toxicity established by the Consumer Product Safety Commission,” said Virginia Tech Charles Lunsford professor of Civil Engineering, Marc Edwards in an article from UNC.
He is a coauthor of a recent study published in the Journal of the American Water Works Association, which shows that some brass devices used in plumbing systems can leach dangerous levels of lead into drinking water.
“In most other cases the issue would go undetected. The fact that some defective products, listed as safe, could be installed in schools and day care centers and harm children is very troubling,” he said.
If lead remains undetected in water and is consumed it can lead to severe health problems. In the past, those impacted by lead poisoning had damage to their brain and nervous systems resulting in insomnia, hallucinations, delirium and convulsion, behavioral or learning disabilities, slowed growth, and hearing problems, reports the EPA. Children and pregnant women are more susceptible to these harmful effects as well.
Edwards and Paolo Scardina, Ph.D., assistant professor of practice at the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department of Virginia Tech and Carolyn Elfland, associate vice chancellor for campus services at UNC decided to take on the research project in early 2007 after they discovered high lead levels in some water fountains installed in recently constructed buildings at UNC.
Their tests revealed that the water from the fountains had lead content limits well above the EPA’s limit of 15 parts per billion, which the researchers had already deemed too lenient. They discovered that the water coming from these fountains had lead levels of 300 parts per billion, enough to pose severe harm to those who drank it.
The researchers were able to trace the cause of the high lead levels to a brass device used in the fountain. The device, a brass ball valve that had an inner coating made of 18 percent lead, was coming into contact with the water on its way out of the fountain.
The device had passed national safety standards because it was under the legal overall lead content limit of 8 percent. However, in line with Edwards’s past concerns, these standards proved to be too lenient.
“People have a right to expect that drinking water in brand new buildings will not be contaminated by lead, and building owners should not have to go the effort and expense UNC does to ensure that expectation is met,” said Elfland to UNC. “In my opinion, this is a major regulatory failure.”
