Lead oxidizes in pipes, and get a neutral layer on it that makes it safe. It's only when the water is acidic, or base, (such as happened with Flint, MI) that the water eats away at the oxidation and it leads people to ingest lead from their water pipes. Even then, if you let the water run for 30 seconds before taking a drink, you flush out the stagnant lead particles and you're fine. Not that is a solution, btw.
It was long noted, though, that house painters, and lead miners, and their children, had problems. When lead was used in gasoline, that's when way more people were exposed to it starting in the mid 20th century and the mass usage of the automobile. Prior to that, lead paint on the walls didn't cause a problem because nobody was eating the paint chips or breathing the dust in from the windows, because they didn't have AC.
The lead piping in homes in America is the connections/joints between the municipal water hook up at the street, and into the house. That's were the problem lead came from in Flint, MI. I don't think there has been 100% lead piping since, say, the Middle Ages. Even back then, they knew that copper, for instance, had a purifying effect. In modern terms, it's antiseptic.
Frankly, I wonder what the replacement of copper with plastic in all the ticky-tack suburban homes is doing to people.
Lead oxidizes in pipes, and get a neutral layer on it that makes it safe. It's only when the water is acidic, or base, (such as happened with Flint, MI) that the water eats away at the oxidation and it leads people to ingest lead from their water pipes. Even then, if you let the water run for 30 seconds before taking a drink, you flush out the stagnant lead particles and you're fine. Not that is a solution, btw.
It was long noted, though, that house painters, and lead miners, and their children, had problems. When lead was used in gasoline, that's when way more people were exposed to it starting in the mid 20th century and the mass usage of the automobile. Prior to that, lead paint on the walls didn't cause a problem because nobody was eating the paint chips or breathing the dust in from the windows, because they didn't have AC.
Yeah, no you aren't! It depends where the lead piping is.
The lead piping in homes in America is the connections/joints between the municipal water hook up at the street, and into the house. That's were the problem lead came from in Flint, MI. I don't think there has been 100% lead piping since, say, the Middle Ages. Even back then, they knew that copper, for instance, had a purifying effect. In modern terms, it's antiseptic.
Frankly, I wonder what the replacement of copper with plastic in all the ticky-tack suburban homes is doing to people.