Heavy metal poisoning...

It sounds like something older folks say younger people get while listening to Slayer, Megadeth and other heavy metal bands, but it actually deals with what happens to the human body when exposed to higher than normal levels of metals like  copper, manganese, cadmium, zinc, thallium, mercury, arsenic, gold, silver, iron, lead, etc.

Heavy metals poisoning occurs when toxic levels of metals accumulate in the body's soft tissue.  A number of heavy metals such as zinc, copper, chromium, iron and manganese play critical roles in keeping the body functioning properly BUT if ingested in high enough quantities those previously beneficial metals become toxins in the body and may cause serious, sometimes irreversible damage... which may culminate in serious illness or death.

Most often incidents of heavy metal poisoning in humans result from overexposure to metals like lead, mercury, arsenic and cadmium.  Exposure may have happened as a result of on-the-job exposure, accidental ingesting of contaminated water and/or air, tainted foods, improperly prepared medicines, food and beverage container liners, and the ever popular hobby of eating lead paint chips.

How much metal is TOO much metal in my drinking water?

It varies by contaminant and for more specific information on this topic we suggest checking out the  EPA's Primary and Secondary Drinking Water Standards.  Those lists break down contaminants into two categories:  1) Potentially damaging to health; 2) Potentially damaging for aesthetic (taste, odor, discoloration, etc.) reasons.

Removal of metals from drinking water

Before purchasing a water quality improvement system (AKA: a water filter) one should always have their water tested either using at-home water quality test kits or by a certified water testing laboratory.  Companies such as National Testing Laboratories offer mail-in water testing packages and typically provide results in 7 to 10 business days.

Total Copper in Water Test

Chromium in Water Test

Mercury in Water Test

To the untrained eye each ‘glowing’ report tells a wonderful water quality success story and most of the reports use pristine pictures of crisp, clean water flowing beautifully from a sparkling faucet to paint a picture of water quality perfection.

We congratulate every water department that passed Federal muster and thank them for doing a fine job.

We scold every water department that failed Federal muster. Please get your acts together and do a better job this year!

The problem with annual water quality reports

In a good number of the reports we have looked through we found a rather ugly truth buried in the tables, charts, and pretty pictures: Yes, the water tested below Federal Guidelines for potentially hazardous metals like lead, chromium, etc. and disinfection byproducts (DBP’s), but detectable levels of those drinking water contaminants existed in the water.

Health officials have stated for a long time that ANY amounts of toxic metals like lead in drinking water or chromium may cause serious health problems — especially in young children. Exposure to metals like lead may lead to lower IQ’s, developmental problems, behavioral issues, and impaired learning abilities.

Oh, and one more thing: When last we checked, the medical community agrees that any concentration of lead in drinking water constitutes an unsafe concentration of lead in drinking water.

Why are Federal Guideline concentrations higher than medically ‘safe’ concentrations?

The United States Environmental Protection Agency set the maximum allowable contaminant concentration levels for most unwanted drinking water contaminants… a long time ago. In some cases the levels for some contaminants may have hit the books more than 50 years ago!

One must also remember that regardless of the toxicity of a drinking water contaminant, the number of potential drinking water contaminants that the USEPA has to keep tabs on grows by leaps and bounds each year. We imagine that a case load of that magnitude would result in a standard operation procedure based on the following principle: Squeaky Wheel Gets the Oil.

Contaminants making the news and/or waves in the health community probably get the bulk of attention, laboratory time, and financial resources while research and legislation on other, less newsworthy (but no less dangerous!) drinking water contaminants get put on the back burner.

Moral of the story?

As with anything in life, you should take your local water department’s Annual Water Quality Report with a grain of salt. Read through the data and verify for yourself that when your water leaves the treatment facility it contains NONE of the drinking water contaminants that you hear about on the news or that you find in the EPA’s Primary Drinking Water Standards List — especially if you have small children in the house.

When setting MCL’s (maximum contaminant levels) for drinking water contaminants, the weight of a person gets factored into the equation and health officials typically set MCL’s using the weight of an average sized adult, not a child.

Whether listed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency as a serious health concern or just a general nuisance, most people care about only one thing: Testing for metals in drinking water and removing them ASAP!

Commonly asked about metals include…

Questions about other metals such as manganese, copper, chromium and, of course, our dear friend arsenic, also make their way into emails sent through our Contact Us page.

Why the Concern Over Metals in Water?

Health officials unanimously agree that excessive exposure to dissolved metals in water can in many cases lead to serious side effects such as cancer, organ damage, impairment of the nervous system, the development of a life-threatening condition where the immune system attacks its own cells, a reduction in the growth and development of cells, joint problems/diseases, circulatory system problems, and last, but definitely not least… death.

Younger people stand to suffer the effects of exposure to metals more than adults do to their small body masses. In other words, an 8 oz glass of water containing X ppm (parts per million) of heavy metals will result in a much higher dose in a child than it will in an adult who drinks the same glass of water.

Some health officials theorize that very young children and unborn babies whose bodies develop at a rapid pace absorb the metals readily into their systems. Exposure of this nature often results in learning difficulties, damaged nervous systems, memory deficiencies, and even behavioral problems such as hyperactivity and aggressiveness.

More Information on Metals in Water:

• Lead Testing in Humans… Without Needles
• Study Links Manganese Exposure to Cancer
• Chromium in Drinking Water
• Mercury Found in Fish From All 291 US Streams & Rivers Tested
• Filters for Mercury in Drinking Water
• Copper in Drinking Water
• Information About Mercury
• Visual Test Kit for Lead in Paint
• Rust Color in Drinking Water

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)–Environmental groups on Thursday took aim a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant that was responsible for a toxic spill last year, challenging a new permit allowing the plant to dump unlimited amounts of additional pollutants into Tennessee’s Clinch River.

Earthjustice, Environmental Integrity Project and the Sierra Club filed the appeal before the Tennessee Water Quality Control Board. It challenges a permit granted last month by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, or TDEC, that allows the TVA to discharge pollutants into the river.

Power plants dump dirty water into rivers in part because of technology to keep soot and ash out of the air. But if the waste is pumped into waterways without being treated, the mixture of water and metals can damage drinking-water supplies and the environment. State are largely responsible for regulating the discharges.

“What we’re seeing on the whole is cleaner air but dirtier water,” said Abigail Dillen, a lawyer with Earthjustice. She said the TVA’s Kingston plant was “not taking the additional steps they need to take to treat their wastewater,” since state environmental regulators hadn’t required it.

The TVA said in a statement that “although an analysis will show that metals are present in the discharged water, state and federal agencies have determined that there is no reasonable potential for these materials to cause an exceedance of any water-quality criteria.” A spokeswoman for the state environmental regulator referred a reporter to the permit, in which TDEC lays out its rationale for the conditions. ( source )

Pretty scary stuff when an organization guilty of polluting the environment can wave a legally issued permit around and say, “Yes, we are guilty of dumping undisclosed amounts of environmentally harmful chemicals into the river but this permit says we can… so there.”

Situations like this make all of us at Water Testing Blog glad the public has access to test kits for metals in drinking water that provide rapid test results for things like copper, iron, manganese, chromium, and lead. For a more general test of the metals content of water, people can also use a product such as SenSafe Water Metals Check to get a semi-quantitative reading of the total metals content of well water, tap water, groundwater, etc.

What metals could do all that?  Scientists debate that question quite often, but the point of the matter is that you don’t want ANY of the metals, debated or otherwise, in your water.

Sources of Metal Contamination in Drinking Water:

Metals find their way into your water supply in a number of ways.  While the water may have left its source (well, city reservoir, etc.) w/o metals in it, the instant it touched ANY metal it automatically picked up some ions — especially if the water had an unusually high or low pH for any reason.

Even if you think your house has all (new) PVC fittings and piping, keep in mind that your water provider does not use PVC piping to run the water from itself to your doorstep.  Oh, and those metal fittings called ‘faucets’ and the screens inside them contain metal as well. (reference)

So as you can see, consumers ought to consider doing a general test for metal ions their drinking water.  Critters such as aluminum, lead, cadmium and so forth can pop up from a number of sources and according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency and Health Professionals worldwide, people need to limit the amounts of metals they ingest.

Simple Test for Metals in Water:

Just a few short years ago consumers had to rely upon the ‘wisdom’ and ‘training’ of water system consultants (salesmen!) to tell them if they had metals in their drinking water. . . or they could shell out some serious dough and send their water off to a local lab for a complete and thorough analysis — which would tell them more information than they needed, yet probably wouldn’t tell them anything they could use to decide if they had problems with their water.

Thankfully those days have come to an end.  Consumers now have the option of testing their own drinking water for metals at a cost they can afford, and with an amount of ease they can tolerate.  A simple dip-n-read test strip for metals in water that detects levels as low as 10 ppb (typically reverse osmosis water is at this level or lower) and as high as 1,000 ppb (1 ppm) is readily available from a number of vendors.

While SenSafe(TM) Water Metals Check will not tell you specifically what metals your water contains, it will let you know that you may have a reason to have your water looked at by a water industry professional.

Testing for Specific Metals in Drinking Water

For those wishing to test for specific metals in their drinking water, please use the links below to locate information about ion-specific metals in water test kits:

• Arsenic in Water
• Chromium in Water 
• Copper in Water
• Iron in Water
• Lead in Water
• Manganese in Water
• Mercury in Water