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My mom works for our local municipal government administering a HUD lead abatement grant. The state of lead contamination in many older homes in low income area

by asow92 2y ago

My mom works for our local municipal government administering a HUD lead abatement grant. The state of lead contamination in many older homes in low income areas is just awful.

geepytee 2y ago
Is there any cheap way to test the quality of my water? I did some Googling around, looks like there are services that will do this for a fee but didn't look particularly affordable.
- tstrimple 2y ago
  If you want specific numbers, you'll need to get a lab involved which will be more expensive. But to just detect the presence of contaminants, a cheap tester like available at hardware stores should work. An example: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Safe-Home-Do-it-Yourself-Lead-in-Water-Test-Kit-SH-PBDIY1/308899171 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Safe-Home-Do-it-Yourself-Lead-in...
- mystified5016 2y ago
  Looks like there's some fairly cheap "diy water test kit" on Amazon. I'd expect them to work reasonably well, at least for lead. The chemistry is pretty simple. Whether they can detect low concentrations is another matter. You could boil a pot of water until most of it is gone and test that. You'll have a much higher concentration of any contaminants.
  - geepytee 2y ago
    Just ordered one, wish there was one for microplastics too (and whichever other contaminants that I'm not aware of).
- ars 2y ago
  Are you on municipal water? If you are call the water company, they will often test it for free. They are required by law to test a certain number of houses each year - yours can be one of them. If you are on well water, call your county department of health, there might be a fee, but it should be lower than a private lab.
  - geepytee 2y ago
    I think so? I'll check with the city of Redwood City / San Mateo county. Good call!
- asow92 2y ago
  Regardless of your water source and/or lead contamination level, it's advisable to install a reverse osmosis filtration system. They're relatively affordable and will remove most contaminants. As a bonus reverse osmosis will produce clean tasting water rivaling that of bottled water, but you might want to consider supplementing minerals in your diet to compensate for anything lost in filtration.

by asow92 2y ago

My mom works for our local municipal government administering a HUD lead abatement grant. The state of lead contamination in many older homes in low income areas is just awful.

geepytee 2y ago

Is there any cheap way to test the quality of my water? I did some Googling around, looks like there are services that will do this for a fee but didn't look particularly affordable.

tstrimple 2y ago
If you want specific numbers, you'll need to get a lab involved which will be more expensive. But to just detect the presence of contaminants, a cheap tester like available at hardware stores should work. An example: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Safe-Home-Do-it-Yourself-Lead-in-Water-Test-Kit-SH-PBDIY1/308899171 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Safe-Home-Do-it-Yourself-Lead-in...
mystified5016 2y ago
Looks like there's some fairly cheap "diy water test kit" on Amazon. I'd expect them to work reasonably well, at least for lead. The chemistry is pretty simple. Whether they can detect low concentrations is another matter. You could boil a pot of water until most of it is gone and test that. You'll have a much higher concentration of any contaminants.
- geepytee 2y ago
  Just ordered one, wish there was one for microplastics too (and whichever other contaminants that I'm not aware of).
ars 2y ago
Are you on municipal water? If you are call the water company, they will often test it for free. They are required by law to test a certain number of houses each year - yours can be one of them. If you are on well water, call your county department of health, there might be a fee, but it should be lower than a private lab.
- geepytee 2y ago
  I think so? I'll check with the city of Redwood City / San Mateo county. Good call!
asow92 2y ago
Regardless of your water source and/or lead contamination level, it's advisable to install a reverse osmosis filtration system. They're relatively affordable and will remove most contaminants. As a bonus reverse osmosis will produce clean tasting water rivaling that of bottled water, but you might want to consider supplementing minerals in your diet to compensate for anything lost in filtration.