Glatt, do you drink the water?
 

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...drinking-water

Apparently Washington DC water has high lead levels...

Politicians there need to get the lead out.

Yeah. Lead is extremely high here. I didn't read the article but part of the problem is they switched to some new water treatment chemical that made the lead leech out of the pipes even faster. The bad pipes are mostly between the street and house, so it's hard to fix.

We've had our water tested, and our house is fine. But we know people with very high levels of lead in their water. We filter our drinking water anyway.

I get program kids with high lead levels all the time. Its one of those problems that cities kick down the road only to end up burdening their school systems with, not to mention ruining outcomes for kids...

Do filters actually remove lead?

Most of the problem for little kids is the old lead-based paints in old housing,
and the sweet taste of old window putty that has a high lead content.

In olden times (eastern cities) the water pipe solders had a high lead content,
so as Glatt says, the cities can replace the large distribution pipes in the streets,
but getting to connectors between the streets and (older) houses is a $ problem.

I wouldn't expect the usual sorts of filters to do much for lead,
because it is in solution as opposed to particles.

Prevention of access to paint chips and putty is the most
efficient means of protecting little kids.

I think I would disagree with the idea that cities are ignoring the problem.
If the parents have access to WIC programs, the kids are probably being monitored (for anemia).

Although there is no "safe" level for lead in children, there also has to be
a balance between resources and outcomes.
So when you hear of SNAP budgets being cut, there are all sorts of consequences.

Yeah, our filters filter for taste and particles. I was misremembering what they did.

The pipes in our neighborhood were replaced about 5 years ago, and our property's pipes are rusty galvanized pipes, so we get a lot of iron in our diet.

Friends of ours on capitol hill had a solid lead supply pipe from the street to their house. They had it removed before their first child was born, but the lead in their water is still really high.

High quality filters will remove lead, chlorine, and even the dissolved prescription drugs that are now prevalent in most water supplies. But you have to consider that there is exposure even in the shower, though obviously less than when you drink it. We have a whole-house filter installed on the main water line, which has a two-step process. One filter cartridge gets replaced every 3 months, and the other every year.

Ours remove the chlorine and I presume fluoride. They really crank up the chlorine levels here and the water tastes almost like pool water, especially in the spring, when they increase the chlorine to give it a special spring cleaning.

Yeah, most of the lead is assumed to be from paint.

I read a study that asserted significant amounts come from car exhaust fumes as well. It correlated crime rate and learning disability fluctuations with amount of lead allowed in local fuels over time.

Yes, especially in cities, but dropped significantly with the phase out of leaded gas starting in '73. Leaded gas for cars/trucks was down to less than 1% by '96, but still in aviation fuel. There's a little in some racing fuel that doesn't amount to shit.

I believe it's true that lead (from gas exhausts) in the soil is higher around freeways.
But since freeways were built through the poor, older parts of the city it's not hard
to correlate any one aspect of poverty with any other.