Getting lead out is critical water issue
Sunday, April 13th, 2008By Wilma Chan and Martha Guzman Aceves - Special to The Bee Published Tuesday, April 1, 2008
In 2006, California took a major step in protecting the health of our children when the governor signed Assembly Bill 1953, which would nearly eliminate lead from our drinking water faucets and plumbing fittings by 2010. We have long known about the toxic hazards of lead, but it has only recently been scientifically proven that extremely low exposures to lead can have serious health effects, both in childhood and later in life. Ailments such as reduced IQs, kidney disease, hypertension, learning impairment in infants, hearing loss, fetal brain damage, nervous system disorders and cardiovascular impairment can be attributed to lead exposure.
Scientific studies estimate the economic and social costs of lead poisoning are almost five times the costs of childhood asthma, cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurological disorders combined. In California, the costs of these impacts are estimated at a staggering $800 million a year, which could be saved by reductions in lead exposure.
Against the will of the Legislature and the expectations of the public, the faucet manufacturers have repeatedly sought to undermine and delay the implementation of this important health standard ever since its passage. This year they are backing another bill, Senate Bill 1334, by Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, that would interfere with the state Department of Public Health carrying out its vital responsibility for compliance oversight to ensure faucets are lead-free and instead hand this important authority over to a private laboratory.
Most faucets are made of copper, zinc and lead. Of these three metals, lead is recognized by the medical community as posing the most serious human health hazards of these metals, even at extremely low concentrations. However, lead costs a fraction of what copper costs, so there are profit incentives to keep lead in the faucet manufacturing process. The Legislature cannot allow industry profits to trump protection of public health from the dangers of lead.
The indictment list against lead is long, and although many have reached a verdict, lead continues to pose a danger to the public. In 1998, the California Department of Public Health found that nearly one in five public schools exceeded the federal level for lead concentrations in drinking water. In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that as much as 20 percent of human lead exposure is the result of lead in our plumbing, including brass faucets. The California and U.S. Enviromental Protection Agencies acknowledge that there is no safe level of lead in the bloodstream.
Since the early 1990s, we have seen most of the manufacturing for plumbing fixtures moved offshore. Today, the vast majority of faucets sold in the United States are manufactured overseas, including China as one of the major producers. Concerns have been expressed about the fact that in today’s global economy, it is nearly impossible to identify the source of materials used by manufacturers in each country. As made evident by recent product recalls for toys and pet food, quality control can all too easily be sacrificed in a competitive market.
SB 1334 is another attempt to foil the implementation of AB 1953’s critical public health standard. The hazards of lead are all too well known and the cost to our health, our society and our state is too great to allow faucets to continue to poison our drinking water with lead.
We are proud that California has so often been in the vanguard of improving public health protections, as exemplified by AB 1953. Californians have a right to expect that lead will be nearly eliminated from their drinking water by 2010, without delay.