Blogging NYT: Never Drink Hot Water From the Tap

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Do you sometimes take a shortcut when making pasta or tea and start with hot water from the tap as a headstart? The Environmental Protection Agency says to knock it off! And especially don't use hot tap water to prepare baby formula.

A small piece in the New York Times caught our eye warning that not drinking hot water from the tap sounds like an urban myth, but there is science behind it. Lead can enter your water through corroded plumbing (especially if you live in an older house or apartment) which is dissolved quicker by hot water than cold. No one wants to ingest lead, but it's particularly dangerous for children whose brains and nervous systems are more vulnerable.

Even though the risk is small, don't take the shortcut - start with cold water when cooking and drinking.

p.s. Boiling water does not remove any lead - it actually increases its concentration.

Comments (6)

Actually, boiling increases the concentration of lead in the remaining water that didn't boil away, but not the contamination. It's still the same amount of lead that you would ingest pre- or post- boiling. If you drank a 1/2 cup of water straight from the tap let's say you'd get 100 mg of lead. Then you get another 1/2 cup of water from the tap and boil it. Drink the boiled water. You're drinking slightly less than a 1/2 cup of boiled water, but you're still getting the same amount of lead...100 mg. It's just more concentrated in less water.

Here in Milwaukee we're advised to let the tap run cold for awhile first thing in the morning before drinking it, to flush out the water that was sitting in the lead pipes overnight.

posted by avimom on February 1st 2008 at 10:18am
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So what about the on-demand water heaters? I always wondered if this warning held true for those as well if there's no already hot water sitting around in old tanks and old pipes gathering lead and whatnot.

posted by randomname on February 2nd 2008 at 12:39am
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How 'bout making baby formula with your breasts....it's naturally unleaded.

posted by aweekinparis on February 2nd 2008 at 2:38pm
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My instant hot-water heater is filtered. I have no idea how to check if it filters out lead though....Maybe I'll call the mfg because we use that thing alllll the dang time...especially since our breasts ran dry...

posted by jairip on February 4th 2008 at 10:20am
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We live in a 80 year old apartment building and I was worried about lead in the pipes, so we mix all our formula with distilled water. (No breasts in this family...)

posted by deoxy on February 4th 2008 at 1:31pm
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Oh, come on. Families all have their own reasons for breast feeding or not breast feeding. Some biological mothers can't breastfeed for various reasons, and other babies' parents might be adoptive parents, foster parents, single dad, two dads, etc. You can't assume that breastfeeding is possible for all families.

Explaining the benefits of breastfeeding (for families where it's possible) is one thing, but please don't make anti-formula comments.

posted by eeka on February 9th 2008 at 7:39am
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