The Environmental Protection Agency has stated categorically, "Lead is the number-one environmental health threat to our children." Years ago parents were shocked to learn that the paint used in their children's rooms was actually poisonous because it was lead based. But even when that was outlawed, it didn't eliminate the problem of lead poisoning.
Lead is one of the three most serious heavy metal contaminations we face. The other two are cadmium, and mercury. Of a lesser hazard are aluminum and beryllium. These heavy metals have no known biological function but can be detrimental to health, especially causing long range health issues. Lead can be ingested through car exhaust, cigarette smoke, some colored inks, cosmetics, glass production, hair dyes, lead-glazed earthenware, pottery, metal polish, and a host of other ways.
One major way of ingesting these poisons is through drinking water. Old houses might still have lead pipes. Though copper replaced lead a long time ago, not all houses have been upgraded. Old well casings and storage tanks might also contain lead. City water is fed by wells or rivers and they inevitably contain some level of lead. The author checked his own city water system and found the level of lead in the water he receives is 2.5 parts per billion. Levels as high as 12 ppb are still within the limits. However, the last lead test on the water was done two years before the report was issued.
To add concern to the possibility of lead poisoning in city water, consider this. The Washington Post reported that, upon examining 65 of the 3,000 largest utilities, they found that cities such as Providence, R.I., New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, and Portland, Maine, are "manipulating the results of tests used to detect lead in water, violating federal law and putting millions of Americans at risk." Further, in excess of 250 major cities currently exceed the EPA's lead standards. Many of them have been "deceptive, or even fraudulent, in their reporting of the problems."
"Each year in the U.S., lead in drinking water contributes to 480,000 cases of learning disorders in children and 560,000 cases of hypertension in adult males." Though we can't get rid of lead in our water systems entirely, we can do as much as possible to minimize the problem.
The effect of lead in the human body is frightening. Some of the problems, in alphabetical order are myelopathy (spinal cord pathology), nausea, nephritis, nightmares, numbness, Parkinson's disease, peripheral neuropathies, psychosis, psychomotor dysfunction, pyorrhea, renal dysfunction, restlessness, retardation, schizophrenia, seizures, sterility, stillbirths, sudden infant death syndrome, tingling, tooth decay, vertigo, and unintentional weight loss.
The list continues. In summary, the leading areas of concern are kidney problems and nervous system damage. As you can see, these are not the only problems lead causes, but they are certainly a legitimate concern.
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