London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
View report page
Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Sutton 1968
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Sutton]
This page requires JavaScript
On account of their hardness content and alkaline reaction the Board's river
and well water supplies are not considered to be plumbo-solvent. It should,
however, be appreciated that all types of water pick up varying amounts of
metal from the material of water piping particularly when it is newly
installed., This applies to copper, zinc, iron and also to lead.
Special tests for lead have been carried out during 1968 on 100 premises
where a lead supply pipe is installed. The premises were chosen to give an
even distribution of samples throughout the whole of the Board's area. Two
samples were collected from each premises. One was the first running of
water standing in the lead pipe overnight and the other was a sample of water
after running the tap for a few minutes.
Lead content of water from main taps in consumers' premises
| Lead content (mg/l Pb) | Samples of water standing in lead pipe overnight | Samples of water after running the tap |
|---|---|---|
| Less than 0.01 | 10 | 37 |
| o.o1 | 31 | 57 |
| 0.02 | 21 | 4 |
| 0.03 | 8 | 1 |
| 0.04 | 9 | 0 |
| 0.05 | 5 | 0 |
| 0.06 | 5 | 0 |
| 0.07 | 4 | 1 |
| 0.08 | 1 | 0 |
| 0.09 | 3 | 0 |
| 0.10 | 1 | 0 |
| 0.l2 | 1 | 0 |
| 0.16 | 1 | 0 |
| 100 premises | 100 premises |
These results are very satisfactory and the figures are within the limits
of the World Health Organisation European Standards for Drinking Water
Quality. This states that the upper limit for lead in running water in
the supply should not be more than 0.1 mg/l (Pb), but where water undertakings
continue to use lead piping the concentration of lead (as Pb)
should not exceed 0.3 mg/l after l6 hours contact with the pipes.
- 119 -