New brass faucets and fittings can also leach lead, even though they are “lead-free”. Scientific data indicate that the newer the home, the greater the risk of lead contamination. Lead concentrations decrease as a building ages. This is because, as time passes, mineral deposits form a coating on the inside of the pipes (if the water is not corrosive). This coating insulates the water from the solder. But, during the first five years, before the coating forms, water is in direct contact with the lead. More likely than not, water in buildings less than five years old has high concentrations of lead contamination."
Here is the actual Standard as it pertains to end-point devices, with more that follows:
**ANSI / NSF Standard 53 - Lead-Free Requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act & ****NSF Standard 61 **
**The 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) required the U.S. Environmental ****Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a performance standard to govern the leaching of lead from ****endpoint devices intended to dispense water for human consumption. The EPA selected Section 9 ****of ANSI/NSF Standard 61: Drinking Water System Components–Health Effects as this standard. **
**Prior to the 1996 amendments, the Safe Drinking Water Act restricted faucets and other plumbing ****fixtures to a lower eight percent lead content. The 1996 amendments retained the eight percent ****lead content requirement, and further mandated that faucets, drinking fountains and other ****drinking water dispensing devices must now also meet the performance-based lead leaching ****requirements of NSF Standard 61, Section 9. **
**Section 1417(a)(3) of the Safe Drinking Water Act made it unlawful for any pipe or plumbing ****fitting or fixture that is not “lead free” to have been introduced into commerce after August 6, ****1998. The agency also applied this interpretation to products installed by contractors, even if they ****purchased the product before August 6, 1998. This meant that potable water products certified to ****both ANSI/NSF Standard 14 and ANSI/NSF Standard 61 also meet Section 1417 (a) (3) of the ****SDWA. **
Now, additional factors affect the corrosivity of water in distribution system piping. For instance, water softeners will make water more corrosive. Hard water can actially form scaling on the interior of pipes. Bottom line is that most people allow the water they consume for drinking to run until it turns cold. This will actually flush lead this has leached from solder, fittind, or piping out.
Good point regarding lead in drinking water, though. This is one of the reasons the EPA has changed the standard for taking any lead-in-water sample.
I am questioning this data just as you are. I found this article
to be on several sites and wanted to throw it out to the NACHI
forum and see what other data was out there.