Lead leached into water from select plumbing fixtures Could lead to health hazard

Background: lead is an inert metal and is resistant to corrosion. it also increases tensile strength of many common materials in daily use. lead was used during the roman period to transport water (hence the name plumbing/plumber is common terminology even in the present day). lead enters the biological system through the air,water,and dust. fine particles of lead,having diameter less than 5 nm are directly absorbed by lungs. inorganic lead is absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract,and organic lead is absorbed by the skin. lead has long been known to be a toxic heavy metal and exposure is associated with many deleterious health effects. still,lead remains a popular ingredient in products ranging from paint to batteries. the lead content in any given material is estimated using various methods. the least cumbersome method is found to be x-ray fluorescence technique (xrf). a portable xrf advice was used in the present study. aim: the main aim of this study to investigate whether lead is present in various commonly used plumbing materials. material and methods: all types of branded and commonly used pipes were gathered from a market in bangalore and tested using the xrf machine. in order to evaluate to what extent lead from the pipes could leach into water,seven pipes were randomly selected and filled with aquafina water (having undetectable level of lead) for a 24 hour period. this water was tested at an nabl accredited laboratory in bangalore,india for lead content. result: it was determined that lead was present in many of the samples,at an unacceptable levels ranging from,well above the globally accepted level of 0.01 mg/l proof that lead was able to leach from the samples into water. conclusions: as lead in drinking water represents a direct pathway for human exposure,the authors recommend that significant measures be taken to prevent use of lead in the plumbing industry for prevention of it's deleterious effects. authors have also recommended non expensive solution to prevent the lead from water getting in to biological or environmental system. © journal of krishna institute of medical sciences university.