How much lead is really in our water?
The story that blew up across regular and social media Monday was how much lead is in drinking water in Canada, with worse than Flint, Michigan being the scare statement. That’s clickbait, though, because our drinking water leaves the purification plant in fine shape – it’s the pipes leading into houses that are a concern.
I just googled for “lead water montreal” and the top “People also ask” is a drop-down question: “Is it safe to drink tap water in Montreal?” with the response: “The city of Montreal says tap water must be boiled for at least one minute before it is safe to drink.” If you read on, you realize this is picked up from a very brief boil-water advisory in Anjou last March, and if you think about it, boiling tap water only works for organic contaminants and, if anything, would concentrate any lead in it, but some worried people will simply pick up on that errant piece of data and run with it.
If someone wanted to do PR to make more people buy bottled water, they’ve rung the bell this time.
Kevin 10:54 on 2019-11-05 Permalink
There’s no more lead in your drinking water than there was last year, or ten years ago, or 30.
The only difference is that the amount a health agency considers acceptable has dropped considerably.
The suggested limit that Health Canada set this year is 5 parts per billion. Before that it was 10 ppb (set in 1991).
The acceptable limit in the U.S. has been 15 ppb since 1991.
In France, the acceptable limit was 25 ppb until 2013, when they cut it to 10.
Stop freaking out. Canadians already have among the lowest level of lead in their blood in the world.
Tim 12:27 on 2019-11-05 Permalink
Kevin: it was discovered that testers would run the water for 5 minutes before taking a sample when testing for lead. This practice decreases the amount of lead in the results and has not been used in other jurisdictions for 30 years. In essence, the tests reported by the city have been manipulated for years.
The map provided by Le Devoir will provide the data for your area if you are interested (https://www.ledevoir.com/documents/special/19-10_carte-plomb-montreal/index.html). I was going to have my water tested but after looking at my area on the map, I bypassed that and bought a triple filtration system, certified by the NSF, that will be installed under my sink tonight.
If you consider me to be “freaking out”, so be it. You have your risk tolerance and I have mine.
Kevin 21:59 on 2019-11-05 Permalink
Tim
I know all this. My water was tested by the city at 10 ppb earlier this summer.
I may be overconfident, but given my wife has a PhD in Biochemistry and is now an MD as well, I doubt it.
Not a single person in Montreal has ever had high enough blood lead levels to qualify as poisoned.
This is just another case of Health Canada going ” oh the limits are X somewhere else? Let’s make ours even lower so we can pretend to be safer!”