AWWA ACE62958

The occurrence of particulate lead in drinking water deserves increased scrutiny sincehuman exposure models, sampling protocol, analytical methods and environmentalassessments are based on the presumed dominance of soluble lead in drinking water.Recent cases of childhood lead poisoning from drinking water were tied to solderparticles detaching into and contaminating the water supply, and the authors arguethat similar cases could be occurring elsewhere but are not being detected due toflawed protocols. Specifically, approved sample handling procedures can "miss"particulate lead that is present in samples, leading to situations in which the actuallead present in drinking water was 5 times higher than was quantified using approvedprotocols. The presence of chloride, warmer temperatures and lower pH of thestomach render a large fraction of this particulate lead bioavailable when ingested.Under some rare circumstances, this can result in high level consumer exposure tolead in drinking water that is largely undetected. Includes 18 references, tables, figures.

Product Details

Edition:

Vol. - No.

Published:

06/01/2006

Number of Pages:

14

File Size:

1 file , 370 KB