"Lobster" wrote in message
...
Onetap wrote:
On 3 Jun, 10:28, Frank Erskine wrote:

It would be interesting to see actual statistics (not mere opinions)
of how many people have suffered from lead poisoning due to the use of
lead pipes and lead/tin solder.

Probably quite a few if you were to include non-mains water, acidic
well water or non-water uses. The lunacy amongst Roman Emperors
(Caligula, Nero, etc..) was probably the result of consuming wine
stored or drunk from lead or pewter vessels.

I thought that was more related to generations of incest?

In any case, it's a vast amount of lead surrounding a small amount of acidic
liquid, all of which is ingested - and, no, I wouldn't like to emulate them
as there would be a significant risk if you did it a lot. Comparing this
with any lead from solder fittings in a piped water system is ludicrous. Run
the kitchen tap for 10 seconds before drinking any water and you want have a
problem whatever your system is made of. As another poster said, the only
significant hazard from solder fittings is to the plumber heating them and
breathing the fumes, not to the householder passing water through them (so
to speak ) ), as with PCB manufacture. The only real dangers were where
(soft) water sat for long periods in lead pipes before being drunk (without
flushing). This is now almost unheard of. Removing lead from solder ring
fittings is just another example of the world going mad - the area of solder
presented to the water is minute and the system is regularly flushed.


--
Bob Mannix
(anti-spam is as easy as 1-2-3 - not)