My new Well!

I have a question; How come none of us were dying with lead poison from our old plumbing or blacklung from our asbestos insulation and siding until some scientist decided that it was killing us? My example is the old lady down the road...turned 99 years old yesterday! She lives in the same house she was born (yea, she was born at home, not in a hospital) and raised in. Her "lead" plumbing was installed in the 1940's...her asbestos insulation and asbestos panelled siding was installed on the house in the 1960's. She's smoked since she was in her mid 20's. Her well was drilled in the spring of 1963 (according to her) to replace an old cistern, and the pump is original (also according to her, no repairs ever done on the water)...the well pertains to this post if anyone asks...and she's still alive! She suffered one heart attack in the early 1990's, and her youngest child, a female, is old enough to be my mother! Sorry...cant help but to think about these things.

Don't get me started on that, I agree totally. Lead is a very important part of the recipe for many or most metals. Take the lead out and the alloy becomes weaker and brittle. We lived with lead in our plumbing for many years. As long as the metal doesn't erode into the solution, very little if any lead is leached from the metal. There are more than 700 chemicals besides lead on the Prop 65 list but, lead gets the media attention. Most companies who do business in California have or are switching to stainless steel. Funny thing is, stainless is about 15% chromium, which I believe is worse for you than lead.

California and the big 5 states usually set the presidents for all the other states. So most manufacturers are trying to conform to this stupid law. The new Governor of California has just past a bill that puts even tighter controls on lead. Probably can't even lean your head back and open your mouth to drink from a rain storm in California without the Prop 65 label.

Valveman said: "Take the lead out and the alloy becomes weaker and brittle."

The purpose of lead in brass it to make it easier to machine. It doesn't improve the strength or ductility. Note that the leaded brass (identified as section brass in the table at the link) with 2.75% lead has lower tensile strength, lower shear strength, and lower elongation (a measure of ductility) than section brass with 0.5% lead.

The higher lead brass has a machinability rating of 90% compared to machinability of 60% for the low-lead brass.

http://www.deeco.net/ext/chemmechprop.htm

Screw a nipple into a .5 % lead fitting and it will easily split like a log with a wedge. Same thing to an 8% lead fitting and it just spreads a little but, doesn't break.