Copper pipes testing positive for lead

Caspero

I bought a surface lead detection kit. It consists of swabs which you rub against the surface being tested. If lead is detected the swap turns red.

It doesn't return a positive result when tested on stainless steel etc.

However when I tested it on the outside of the supposedly copper pipe under the sink in our kitchen, the result was strongly positive. The same is true for what look like brass fittings at the joints of the copper piping under the sink.

Could this be some kind of cheaper alloy that includes lead?

As an aside it also tests strongly positive on chrome bathroom taps at the point where the chrome has started to flake off. I guess there is lead in the metal underneath or in whatever was used to bond the chrome to the metal.

I will be replacing the chrome taps given the chrome is flaking off, but I'm now wondering if I need to replace that copper piping too which could be a bigger job.

10-10-20

Where did you get the test-kit from, reputable supplier or online purchase? Does it have a certification from a European testing lab? How old is the house and do you have soldered joints on the copper pipes?

Lead was used up until a time as solder for copper (as it was for pipes), but the lead solder went away back in the 80's (somebody tell me otherwise) and the pipes before that again. As far as I know lead was not used in the chroming process of fittings, but a similar alloy such as zinc would have been applied as the base metal onto brass and then the chrome plating on top. Where the lead is being detected from, I do wonder, but it could be down to the sensitivity or selectivity of the test kit.

Caspero

Thanks 10-10-20. It's just a home test kit bought online so I've ordered a water testing kit from an Irish lab to see if the lead is coming through in the water too.

The house is not that old - build in the go-go years of the 2000s. I know that the builders did take a number of shortcuts here and there as was typical of that era.

I don't think the joints are soldered no, it looks to my untrained eye like the brass? joints are screwed on. I see at one of the joins that there is some kind of green plastic tape or something at the point of connection between the copper and brass.

Regarding the bathroom fittings, perhaps the underlying brass includes lead? Just from wikipedia I see brass can include lead. If so maybe it's also coming from the brass joints used with the copper piping under the sink?

In any case I'll see if it is coming through in the drinking water and go from there.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120422559#Comment_120422559

Other than trace amounts, it shouldn't be there. I do suspect the test kit is at fault here.

Do let us know of the outcome from the lab though!