Lead Pipes as a Source of Lead in Drinking Water

Quam, G. N.; Klein, Arthur

doi:10.2105/ajph.26.8.778

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Employing the identical experimental design as was used for Lowell, these officials passed water from the identical source in the Catskills through lead and iron pipes. The average lead content for water that passed through the lead pipe was .1425 parts per liter of water; the average lead content for water passed 12 See Quam and Klein (1936), p. 779, particularly tables I and II.…”

Section: B Lead In Massachusetts Tap Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, Quam and Klein (1936), using water samples with consistent chemical properties, 15 See, for example, Milton News, February 15, 1902, p. 1. The paper reported that the chairman of the State Board of Health, a Dr. Walcott, stated: "the use of lead pipe for conveying water ought to be discouraged generally, as there is always danger of poisoning from it.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Lead Water Pipes and Infant Mortality in Turn-of-the-Century Massachusetts

Troesken

2003

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This paper considers a largely unknown public-health practice in the United States: the use of lead pipes to distribute household tap water. Municipalities first installed lead pipes during the late nineteenth century. In 1897, about half of all American municipalities used lead water pipes. Using data from 1900 Massachusetts, this paper compares infant death rates and stillbirth rates in cities that used lead water pipes to rates in cities that used non-lead pipes. In the average town in 1900, the use of lead pipes increased infant mortality and stillbirth rates by 25 to 50 percent. However, the effects of lead water lines varied across cities, and depended on the age of the pipe and the corrosiveness of the associated water supplies. Age of pipe influenced lead content because, over time, oxidation formed a protective coating on the interior of pipes. As for corrosiveness, acidic water removed more lead from the interior of pipes than did non-acidic water. Consequently, infant death rates and stillbirth rates in Massachusetts towns employing old lead lines, and non-acidic water supplies, were no higher than in towns employing non-lead pipes. But in cities using new pipes and distributing acidic water, lead pipes increased infant mortality rates and stillbirth rates three-to fourfold.

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Section: B Lead In Massachusetts Tap Watermentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

Lead Water Pipes and Infant Mortality in Turn-of-the-Century Massachusetts

Troesken

2003

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“…In the next section, we discuss identification of the effects of lead and present the main results. 19 Quam and Klein (1936). 2003, we restrict attention to women ages 45 or younger who were married less than 15 years and for whom number of children ever born is greater than zero and is less than or equal to the duration of the marriage.…”

Section: Child Mortality In the 1900 And 1910 Censusesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lead Pipes and Child Mortality

Clay

Troesken

Haines

2006

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Beginning around 1880, public health issues and engineering advances spurred the installation of city water and sewer systems. As part of this growth, many cities chose to use lead service pipes to connect residences to city water systems. This choice had negative consequences for child mortality, although the consequences were often hard to observe amid the overall falling death rates. This paper uses national data from the public use sample of the 1900 Census of Population and data on city use of lead pipes in 1897 to estimate the effect of lead pipes on child mortality. In 1900, 29 percent of the married women in the United States who had given birth to at least one child and were age forty-five or younger lived in locations where lead service pipes were used to deliver water. Because the effect of lead pipes depended on the acidity and hardness of the water, much of the negative effect was concentrated on the densely populated eastern seaboard. In the full sample, women who lived on the eastern seaboard in cities with lead pipes experienced increased child mortality of 9.3 percent relative to the sample average. These estimates suggest that the number of child deaths attributable to the use of lead pipes numbered in the tens of thousands. Many surviving children may have experienced substantial IQ impairment as a result of lead exposure. The tragedy is that lead problems were avoidable, particularly once data became available on the toxicity of lead. These findings have implications for current policy and events.

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The Physiological Aspects of Mineral Salts in Public Water Supplies

Negus¹

1938

Journal AWWA

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Lead Pipes as a Source of Lead in Drinking Water

Cited by 6 publications

References 1 publication

Lead Water Pipes and Infant Mortality in Turn-of-the-Century Massachusetts

Lead Water Pipes and Infant Mortality in Turn-of-the-Century Massachusetts

Lead Pipes and Child Mortality

The Physiological Aspects of Mineral Salts in Public Water Supplies

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