Glass of Water, Hold the Lead

August 16, 2016 2:39 AM

I'm moving to a nice but rather old apartment complex soon. There are lead and asbestos addenda in my lease (that I haven't signed yet). What, if anything, should I be careful about while living in this apartment? Should I be worried about the piping? If so, what do I do?

Next month, I'm almost certainly moving into an apartment complex that was built in 1949. It looks to be well taken care of, and my lease is just for a year, but the lead and asbestos addenda reminded me, yet again, that Oh, yeah, the past sucked so much.

I'm not afraid of old homes/complexes, really, and I recognize this isn't very old by many standards. But I've not lived in a building this old before. I think even my grandmother's house is newer than this. I figure the lead paint has been painted over a zillion times by now, and I don't plan to lick the walls or disturb the popcorn ceiling. Et cetera.

But I do wonder about the piping and drinking water, probably because the thought of sipping lead is on all our minds after recent news—recent news that makes us a little less trusting of regulatory bodies. Is this a reasonable enough concern, or am I being paranoid? If I wanted to test the water for lead, are any of the at-home tests worthwhile (Amazon reviews seem to suggest they aren't)? Nothing could stop me from sending water off to a lab, despite my being a lowly renter, right?

In general, should I be concerned or take any special precautions when living in a place this old? Any questions I should be asking the property manager specifically, before signing the lease?

Thanks!

posted by anonymous to Home & Garden (17 answers total)

It's a reasonable concern. Probably worst case, you can factor in buying bulk bottled water as a cost/inconvenience. Another alternative would be a high quality reverse osmosis water filter, though for a single year, you are likely to find the bottled water a better deal.

You can certainly send water off to a lab to be tested. Unless there is some unusual regulatory/legal requirement, the lab will primarily care that they get paid.

The asbestos probably isn't an issue as long as you're not disturbing anything. Ditto lead paint.
posted by jgreco at 2:59 AM on August 16, 2016

As long as nothing's chipped or exposed you're probably fine. I've signed lead disclosures with every lease for the last 10 years. Right now it bothers me that I can fix the terrible paint job on the windowsills because there is surely lead paint under there and neither I nor my landlord are willing to pay to have it sanded safely. If you had small children it would be more of a concern but really, don't worry about it.
posted by mskyle at 4:06 AM on August 16, 2016

Contact your city's water department to see if they offer tap water testing. (My city offers this for free.) In the meantime, if you think there might be lead in the pipes, run the water for a minute before you use it. Water that's been hanging out in your building's pipes has more time to leach lead.

Lead is not as big a concern for adults as it is for kids - its effect on brain development is the truly scary shit - but it is still serious and it's good to be cautious. If it's any reassurance, I had my blood tested for lead a few years ago after about thirteen years of renting in old apartment buildings, and I was clear.
posted by Metroid Baby at 4:09 AM on August 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

Standard advice in the case of lead supply pipes, if tests confirm a problem, is to not drink water that has been static overnight or for longer periods. Running the water to fill a sink or a large bowl empties about 40 metres of supply pipe. Asbestos is generally only a problem if you disturb it physically.
posted by Dan Brilliant at 4:18 AM on August 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

The building almost certainly has lead paint, and the pipes are probably copper, but soldered with tin-lead solder. I'd be concerned more about chipped & peeling paint than anything else, especially if I had kids in the apartment. But, yes, you should get the water tested if you're worried.
posted by mr vino at 5:43 AM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

When I lived in an old house with lead pipes, I used a PUR faucet-mounted filter that was supposed to remove 99% of lead from the water. That (plus the usual caution of running the water for a few minutes to flush out the pipes) was enough to ease my mind.
posted by belladonna at 5:52 AM on August 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

There are pitchers available to filter lead and other contaminants. Zero Water is one of them. Tthe National Science Foundation certifies filters and systems. If a product filters lead and the NSF certifies it, the packaging will indicate it.
posted by dlwr300 at 6:05 AM on August 16, 2016

Tthe National Science Foundation certifies filters and systems. If a product filters lead and the NSF certifies it, the packaging will indicate it.

NSF in this context stands for National Sanitation Foundation, and has no connection to the National Science Foundation.
posted by grouse at 6:55 AM on August 16, 2016 [5 favorites]

Echoing what people say above about getting a water filter if you are concerned about lead. One thing I wish I had known before moving into an apartment of similar vintage: mineral buildup in the pipes makes the tap water taste terrible and hard water cannot be treated by a filter. You need a water softener for that. And water softening systems are not cheap.
posted by corey flood at 7:39 AM on August 16, 2016

If it makes you feel better, our house was built in the 1840s, and our city's pipes are pretty ancient, we drink tap water (run through an undersink Brita filter that we totally don't replace on a frequent schedule), and our child tested fine for lead every year they did lead tests on him (he's six now).
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 7:45 AM on August 16, 2016

Lead piping is definitely a concern. If your municipality won't test your water for free (definitely call them and ask about it) you can do this yourself pretty easily, and have a large national laboratory like TestAmerica or Accutest (depending on where you live there will probably be some local labs too) run this test for you. Typically, a test for one metal like lead will run you less than $50 for one sample. I've paid as low as $10/sample in the past. Sometimes university labs will also do testing for you at a reduced cost - so again depending on where you live you can look into this.

Probably worst case, you can factor in buying bulk bottled water...

Also, I'd just like to point out that the bottled water industry is not heavily regulated and they are not required to test the water as much as people think. Municipal water is way more heavily regulated and tested, across the whole US. I know there have been several cities in the news that have really dropped the ball, cough Flint cough, but generally speaking, you want to trust municipal water over bottled. There have been several high profile cases of people testing bottled water and finding all sorts of nasty things in it because bottled water companies don't give a shit and only care about making money. Also in many cases, all they are doing is taking tap water and then bottling it.
posted by FireFountain at 8:29 AM on August 16, 2016 [3 favorites]

Asbestos is only a danger if it is "friable" or crumbling. If it is intact it won't get into the air. It is often used in pipe insulation but that may all be behind walls anyway.

I agree that lead paint is just as great a danger as lead pipes. Chipping paint can get into everything. Our city offers lead abatement credits but it is still expensive to deal with. Check the condition of the paint.
posted by mai at 8:39 AM on August 16, 2016

It's also worth noting whether the documents you signed indicate the presence of lead and asbestos, or were simply a waiver indicating you understand that since it's an older building it could have lead and/or asbestos. My older home came with such a waiver when I purchased it, but nothing I've tested within the house before doing renovation has found either.
posted by mikeh at 9:07 AM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Is the apartment in good condition, with no evidence of chipping or damaged paint or damaged ceiling texture or otherwise damaged building materials? If so, you are good on asbestos and lead-based paint exposure unless you have a kid under six (since kids do things like chewing on window sills and get themselves exposed in ways adults do not).

For lead in drinking water, if you want to sample, check with your local environmental health or drinking water folks to see if there's a program. If there isn't, you can call a local environmental lab and ask them to send a sample kit. It's not difficult; just make sure you figure out if you're taking a 12-hour standing sample (where you let the water stand in the pipes for 12 hours and then sample the very first water you draw) or a flushed sample (when you run the water for ~30 seconds before drawing the sample). Or you can take both, of course.

Best practices for ALL drinking water: Never use hot water from the tap for consumptive purposes, and allow the cold water to run fully cold before drinking or doing things like filling pans for cooking.

This also goes for things like water fountains. Everyone should always be doing this, 100% of the time -- you'd be amazed at how many water fountains out there are able to get lead built up above the standard when the water's allowed to sit in there. But as long as you flush the water out, you will be good to go in most circumstances.

FWIW, I'm in the environmental field, have been living in 1950s or earlier housing for over a decade, and have non-detect blood lead levels in part because of my "never drink hot water and allow cold water to flush before drinking" practices.
posted by pie ninja at 9:44 AM on August 16, 2016 [2 favorites]

Water and paint can be tested, and you should do that if it makes you feel more secure. Depending on where you live, those are just standard disclosures for old buildings.

You should give a good look to high wear-and-tear painted items (window sills, light switch plates, cabinets) also give a very thorough look at places with high moisture (kitchen, bath, unventilated closets). If there is chipping paint, it's likely in a high use or high moisture areas. Chipped or peeling paint should be dealt with pronto by your landlord.

BTW If you plan to do any work on the place, then that will be more costly. It's a rental, so presumably, you won't be pulling down old wallpaper or scraping old paint, but in case you do any reno a contractor may charge you additional fees to get rid of waste that *might* be contaminated. Also, I'd consider most renovations beyond a simple paint job to be past the skills of a DIY. If you are disturbing stuff you need someone skilled at removal and remediation.
posted by 26.2 at 10:10 AM on August 16, 2016

Where do you live? In major US cities with a lot of rental housing stock on the older side (I'm specifically thinking of NYC), asbestos abatement and removal of lead pipes, lead paint, etc. has been a local priority and this isn't something that reasonable people really worry about. Everybody lives in old building, and aside from not licking the walls and getting a britta filter, people don't really Do Anything about it.

If you are outside the US, or in a smaller town where enforcement of local rental ordinances is lax because renters are a small and often disenfranchised subset of the population, I would perhaps worry about this more. I'd probably drink only bottled water, not undertake major home renovation tasks, and keep an eye on peeling or chipped paint.
posted by Sara C. at 10:14 AM on August 16, 2016

Lead in drinking water can come from a variety of sources including lead pipes (on the city side and the customer side), premise plumbing, and the taps themselves. There's no reason that you can't have your water tested yourself, but taking a single sample is just a snapshot of what is coming out of your tap. Keep in the mind that there are many reasons that could cause the level of lead in your pipes to change (e.g., broken pipes, upstream repairs or disturbances in the pipes, degradation of the layer of corrosion control inhibitor, etc.). The only way to be sure that lead is removed is by installing a point-of-use filter that is rated for lead removal on each tap that you use to drink or prepare food (do not use a whole house system).

Alternatively, these low-tech and low-cost solutions are fairly good at getting your lead levels down:
-Let water flush for a minute or so before using
-Only use cold water for drinking and preparing food

BTW, if I was going to test, I wouldn't use any at-home kits. I would contact my water provider or local DOH.
posted by jraz at 6:19 PM on August 16, 2016