Drinking water is one possible source of lead exposure.
The primary source of lead exposure for most children is lead-based paint.
Other sources of lead exposure include lead-contaminated dust or soil and some plumbing materials.
Plumbing materials including pipes, new brass faucets, fittings and valves, including “lead-free” can contribute lead to drinking water.
Steps to take to reduce exposure to lead in water: ∫ Run water to flush out lead — 15-30 seconds or until it becomes cold or reaches a steady temperature before using it for drinking or cooking, if not used for several hours.
∫ Replace plumbing fixtures if found to contain lead.
If lead-containing plumbing materials are identified in a home, test the water for lead to determine how much lead is in the drinking water.
New York Public Health Law requires primary health care providers to screen each child for blood lead levels at age 1 and 2 as part of routine well-child care.
If a child has not had routine well-child visits (since the age 1) and one is concerned about lead exposure to their child, contact the local health department or healthcare provider to find out how to get a child tested for lead.
For more information on reducing lead exposure around your home/building and the health effects of lead, visit EPA’s website: www.epa.gov/lead, or call the National Lead Information Center at 1-800-424-5323.

Napier residents have increasingly reported brown or black discoloured water coming out of their taps over the past year or so, with many growing increasingly frustrated at what they believe is a lack of action from Napier City Council (NCC) to fix the discolouration issues.
The lab test was completed by the Ministry of Health-recognised and IANZ-accredited Analytical Research Lab on December 10 after a resident became fed up with the quality of her tap water and decided to have it tested at her own cost.
The test results show a manganese level of 3.52mg/L in the water sampled – almost nine times higher than the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) Maximum Acceptable Value of 0.4mg/L, which is outlined in the Drinking Water Standards for New Zealand.
Mr Kingsford confirmed the discolouration of water in Napier is in fact being caused by high manganese and iron content contained in the biofilm being flushed out of the pipes.
He re-affirmed the council’s stance that the discoloured water is not likely to be harmful to human health, saying "discoloured water in public water pipes does not cause health issues".
"My main concern would be for infants on formula and would suggest that concerned residents use bottled water to prepare formula – formula can contain high levels of manganese normally and infants take up manganese more readily than adults so I would always err on the side of caution, but the risks are likely to be low.
The US state of Minnesota’s Department of Health said in March this year that "children and adults who drink water with high levels of manganese for a long time may have problems with memory, attention, and motor skills.
"Infants (babies under 1 year old) may develop learning and behavior problems if they drink water with too much manganese in it."
Many residents spoken to by 1 NEWS said they have lived in Napier for decades and have never had discolouration issues prior to the chlorination of the network in 2017.
"Council staff take great care in the work they do and are acutely aware of the impact the water supply operation can have on our community.

While all of that sounds promising for creating the circular economy that everyone wants as a solution to plastic waste, how do we get these discarded, single-use items—particularly water bottles—into a value stream that captures the benefits and value of plastic waste and creates greater usefulness?
Bottled water is big business While bottled water is in for consumers, plastic water bottles are out, according to numerous news reports that say consumers are becoming more concerned about the plethora of water bottles floating around in the ocean.
A 2017 survey of the European PET recycling industry, released on Dec. 19, 2018, shows that 58.2% of PET bottles were collected out of 3,308,300 tons of PET bottles placed on the European market in 2018.
Paying consumers to return their plastic water bottles to the store might work as an incentive to consumers.
Don’t make as much single-use plastic stuff like water bottles that end up as waste in the environment, they say.
Even if all plastic packaging is recyclable, humans must take the responsibility to get the recyclable plastic packaging into the proper waste stream to ensure that it is recycled.
“While PET recovery has seen an uptick in patent filings in 2016, it is clear there is no real trend in search queries, which may indicate an industry that is innovating at pace,” said PatSnap.
The European PET Recycling Survey 2017 noted that other problems also interfere with the recyclability of PET, including the quality of the material.
It’s one thing to say that “more collection and better sorting” will provide a solution to ridding the environment of plastic waste and putting more recyclate into the resin stream (rPET in particular), but getting the PET bottles and other single-use packaging waste into the recycling stream remains the most difficult part of achieving these goals.
However, that must be easy and convenient, which might mean moving toward alternatives to sorting and cleaning the collected plastic waste which is not very energy efficient or “green.” Recycling alternatives According to IHS Markit, “only about 4% of the plastic packaging used globally is ultimately delivered to recycling plants, while a third is left in various ecosystems, and 40% ends up in landfill.” The challenge, as noted above, involves humans and their handling of the single-use plastic bottles and other containers once the product has been consumed.

Prince Rupert has a lot of water but right now that’s one resource residents aren’t taking for granted.
Exposure to giardia and cryptosporidium can lead to side effects of ‘beaver fever’ – gas, bloating, diarrhea, stomach cramps, and all that kind of joy.
Merry Christmas Prince Rupert, you are now paying for one of the best summers to date.
It’s the yin and the yang.
We had sun, minimal days of rain, and then all at once the water returned with a vengeance.
The City of Prince Rupert is saying it’s okay to wash your clothes in it, but we’ll pass.
The boil water notice is only supposed to last about a week anyway.
But a week can feel like a long time.
Now, we have to hope and pray that our guests are washing their veggies and plates with boiled water, or washing their hands with boiled, then cooled, water.
For this week, let’s consider that Dodge Cove has been under a boil-water notice since 1988, and more than 100 First Nations communities across Canada that don’t have access clean water.

Lead was discovered in Madison County north of Fredericktown in 1720, years before the first shots of the Revolutionary War were fired, and the Mine La Motte was one of several in the area — it produced more than 325,000 tons of lead metal by the time it closed in 1959, according to the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.
+9 The Lion’s Club rodeo grounds near the Fredericktown airport sit on that section of the Superfund site.
The highest concentration detected at the site was 2,353 parts per million, beneath a section of bleachers.
All properties with concentrations greater than 400 parts per million are eligible for cleanup in Madison County, according to the EPA.
In the past, residential properties with lead concentrations above 1,200 parts per million were targeted.
+9 Lead is a neurotoxin that interrupts normal brain development and has been linked to behavioral problems and learning disabilities in children.
Adults can tolerate higher lead levels than children but also can suffer health problems.
The EPA is in its second year of a three-year contract to remediate 500 properties, which largely should complete residential clean-ups in the county, said Kurt Limesand, the EPA’s remedial project manager for the Madison County Mines Superfund site.
The county has been home to more than 1,000 lead and barite mining, milling or smelting sites.
It’s part of the Madison County Mines Superfund site.

In Henderson County, DOT crews have more than two dozen trucks on the road, working to clear the icy spots.
We spoke with a resident who lost power during the storm and is currently under a boil water advisory.
Early Tuesday morning a big rig got stuck in the snow when trying to turn into a parking lot along Chimney Rock Road.
For the town of Laurel Park, the boil water advisory is in place on Royal Drive because of a water pump outage.
The customers most likely to experience low or no water pressure are those in the vicinity of Timber Creek Road, Echo Drive, Robinson Lane, Apple Lane, and the portion of Laurel Park Highway between Echo Drive and Essowah Drive.
All customers are receiving the Boil Water Advisory.
This interruption of water requires issuance of a Boil Water Advisory.
The Town encourages all customers to use bottled water or vigorously boil tap water for 1 minute before consuming it.
Wait for the water to cool before using.
When water systems experience low pressure or lose pressure, there is an increased risk of contamination.

Public Health Sudbury & Districts has issued a drinking water advisory effective immediately for the residents of Gogama.
A drinking water advisory means that people who take their water from the municipal system should not use it for drinking; making juice, infant formula, or ice; cooking; washing uncooked fruits and vegetables; or brushing teeth.
Boiling the water may not make it safe for drinking.
Bottled water used for making infant formula must still be boiled.
The water can be used for laundry and bathing (excluding small children who could swallow the water).
Once the water supply is re-established, residents should not use the water for human consumption until advised otherwise by Public Health Sudbury & Districts.
“It is possible that a loss of water pressure can create conditions that compromise the safety of the drinking water,” said Cynthia Peacock-Rocca, a manager in the Environmental Health Division.
“Until bacteriological testing of the drinking water indicates a safe supply, the drinking water advisory will remain in effect as a precaution.” Public Health Sudbury & Districts staff will continue to monitor the situation.
We will notify the municipality when the drinking water advisory is lifted and residents will be advised.
For more information, please call Public Health Sudbury & Districts at 705-522-9200 (after hours at 705-688-4366) or visit www.phsd.ca.

FLINT, MI — Water distribution sites are open citywide as part of Judge Greg Mathis’ water bottle drive.
Mathis made good on a promise and returned to Flint Nov. 1 to distribute bottled water.
He also promised to keep bringing bottled water until every lead pipe is replaced.
The following churches will continue to distribute bottled water, according to a city press release: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. at First Trinity, 1226 Beach St. Flint, MI 48502 Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Fairhaven SDA Church, 1379 Louis Ave Flint, MI 48505 Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Christ Fellowship MBC 317 E. Hamilton Ave. Flint, MI 48505 Homebound delivery will only be done by Shiloh MBC/Salem Lutheran.
Residents should call the church at (810)235-0863 for more details.
These are in addition to the Community Help Centers that provide water through donations from Nestle, United Way and private donors, the press release stated.
The Help Centers also provide lead-mitigating food, faucet filters and many other resources.
Help Center times of operation and locations are: Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Bethel United Methodist Church, 1309 Ballenger Highway Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church, 1653 Davison Rd Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Greater Holy Temple, 6702 N. Dort Highway Mathis, along with Flint clergy, other community organizers and citizens, caravaned from Detroit to Flint – collecting bottled water along the way to distribute in Flint.
"This fight is not done.
We are back and we will continue to come back," Mathis previously said.

Lo and behold, as Saabira Chaudhuri notes in the Wall Street Journal, a miraculous new process might come to the rescue and make bottles fully recyclable and circular, a Holy Grail rather than a plain old bottle.
For the bottled-water industry, the challenge has been to find a recycled product that meets regulatory standards for food-grade PET plastic, which is used in bottles.
Now Evian, the French bottled water owned by Danone, is trying to use a process from a Montreal company, Loop Industries, which apparently has "a revolutionary technology poised to transform the plastics industry.
The monomers are then repolymerized to create virgin-quality polyester plastic that meets FDA requirements for use in food-grade packaging."
If this actually works, if Loop actually has a process that can actually separate PET bottles back into their building blocks, then it certainly is a wonderful thing, a step in the direction of a truly circular economy where plastic bottles are actually turned into plastic bottles.
Loop has also signed deals with Pepsi, who says "Loop’s technology enables PepsiCo to be a leading force in ensuring plastic packaging need never become waste" – making real that dream of turning waste into what they can call a resource.
“It’s the total broadened awareness of the environment, especially with millennials.” Or is it all just talk to assuage our guilt?
They want to be seen to be doing the right thing, so the public will all say that this is fine, some day the bottles will be fully recycled, and so the cities being buried in plastic will leave them alone.
It also doesn’t change the fact that it is still using a lot of energy and effort to move around plastic and water when most of us can get perfectly good water out of a tap.
Even in a fully recycled bottle it makes no sense.

Their aim was to see if a new initiative to enlist businesses where people can refill empty bottles with tap water was making a dent in the trash littering the pavement, says marine biologist Heather Koldewey, who oversaw the research.
In the long run scientists need to devise ways to break plastic down into its most basic units, which can be rebuilt into new plastics or other materials.
Because they are used for convenience, not necessity, they are easier to do without, and the polymers used to make them are among the most commonly produced and found in the environment.
Koldewey’s own campaign to reduce the use of bottled water in London, called #OneLess, studied possible locations for placing refilling kiosks that would get the most use, such as public transportation hubs.
But plastic, including some of the same polymers found in single-use packaging, is also used in construction, electronics and fabrics.
One key aspect of improving recycling, some experts say, is designing products so they are easier to recycle.
Curtailing the use of plastic and improving recycling and waste systems would put a major dent in the plastics entering the environment, but not every plastic is easily recyclable and some will still likely make their way into rivers, soil and seas.
In the long term some scientists think changing the very nature of the material and the methods of recycling it could be the ultimate solution to the plastic problem.
For years materials scientists have been trying to create plastics that will biodegrade.
Such a method would take a PET bottle, for example, and break it down into its most basic molecules, separating out added chemicals to provide the building blocks to remake virgin polymers.