3 - Friday, July 27, 1990 - North Shore News

Pipes, dinnerware can
cause lead poisoning

GET THE lead out — now.

That's the message from Don
Wallace, a Seattle man who spoke
on the CBC Radio Almanac pro-
gram recently. He and his wife,
Fran, nearly died from the lead
poisoning they received from a set
of poorly glazed dinnerware, and
they’ve been trying to warn others
of the dangers posed by lead ever
since.

Lead accumulates in the body
over the years, and we are expos-
ed to it from a variety of sources.
Thanks to bans on Jeaded gas, we
won't have to worry about
breathing in lead from auto emis-
sions, but whatever we've inhaled
in the past is still with us.

Wallace recommends avoiding
food sold in tins with lead solder,
which he says is the source of 75
per cent of the lead in tinned
food. Campbell’s Soup is no
longer sold in lead-soldered cans
for this reason.

Lead paint can pose a problem,
especially if you sand it. Sanding
the paint turns it into particles
that can be inhaled. And of
course, ingesting flakes of lead
paint is very harmful. According
to Wallace, if a child eats just a
tiny flake each day, he or she will

* be very sick within a month.

Wallace gave a glowing bill of
health to our GVRD drinking
water, but, unfortunately, that
doesn’t mean we’re safe in that
department. Between $90 and 95
per cent of the lead we drink, he
says, comes from the lead solder
in our water pipes.

Although it was noted that as
of January, Vancouver building
codes disallowed the use of lead in
pipes, homes and buildings built
previously are suspect.

Especially worrisome are build-
ings built within the past four or
five years, as these have not had
time to accumulate a coating
within the pipes that would shield
the water from the lead.

So what do we do about it?
Wallace recommends running the
water for at least two minutes in
the morning to flush the lead-
contaminated water out of the
pipes.

Once that is done, you may
wish to fill up some pitchers of
water to keep in the fridge, so you
always have cool drinking water
on hand without having to waste
water flushing pipes or waiting for
the water to get cold.

People who live in highrise

P Sf ~-Seniors receive 10%. aff on Le 2

aparimen:s, however, would have
to flush their pipes for much
longer, and this becomes very
draining ov the water supply.

In their case, a water purifier
might be useful. While he calls the
water purifier industry a
‘billion-dollar scuc. ’* Wallace
says there are some water filters
that have been tested and proven
effective.

Eco
Info

Peggy Trendell-Whittaker
es

He recommends the Brita water
filter, available in department and
drug stores. The Brita is inexpen-
sive, around $30, and removes 90
per cent of the lead from your tap
water,

This will be of interest to fami-
lies with young children, whose
intake of lead is four to five times
greater than the intake of adults,
and pregnant women. A_ fetus’
exposure to lead from the mother
can adversely affect its later de-
velopment, to the extent of four
to eight IQ points.

People may also be interested to
hear that Gibson Paint, a small
Surrey company (580-1575), has
developed a more environmen-
tally-friendly, lead and mercury-
free line of oil-based paints and
Stains.

Aqua Guard Paint can be
cleaned up with warm water and
soap, and, according to company
president Dave Pasin, ‘‘doesn’t
emit noxious fumes into the at-
mosphere.’’

It’s sold on the North Shore at
Howard’s Paint and Wallpaper on
Marine Drive in West Vancouver.

Wallace sells a kit that allows
homeowners to test for the

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presence of lead in paint and ce-
ramics ($29.95) and one to test for
lead in water ($75).

He used the latter to test the
water in the hotel he was staying
in in Vancouver, and found the
amount well over fevels considered
safe.

His results were confirmed by
North Vancouver’s Elemental
Research (986-0445), a company
that can test for 72 different ele-
ments in water, and which he calls
“one of the highest tech labs in
North America.”

For more information about
Wallace's kits, or to order one for
yourself, call 1-800-359-9000.

ECO-NOTES

Being environmentally conscious
makes good financial sense, too.
For instance, my gas bill is down
to half and I've saved over $100
on my car insurance since starting
to tus and bike to work.

Sharon from West Vancouver
sent in these ‘‘eco-nomical’’ tips
for me to pass along:

* By cutting open plastic or
cardboard containers such as hand
lotions and detergents, you will
find one day to one week’s supp-
} ,

e By taking out lipstick below
the metal you will find enough to
last you for months. This means
buying a little brush (which is bet-
ter for applying lipstick anyway,
she says) and finding a little con-
tainer.

* Use the backs of letters or
junk mail for rough drafts, and
the backs of calendars and other
decorative printed materials for
letters to friends.

This last tip of Sharon's will in-
terest those of you with a green
thumb:

© **} saw some birds pecking at
some stems on the sea walk. Upon
closer inspection, I noticed that
they were eating tiny black insects
that were all along the stems.
Sometimes when we use bug
sprays, we forget that birds use
insects as a large supply of their
food.

“As well, | find that one little
spider in my houseplants keeps
them free from bugs whereas bug
sprays and mild detergents never
seem to work for long. I find my
pet spider doesn’t wander all over
the house, but stays in the plants.

Send your eco-tips to Ecolnfo,
North Shore News, 1139 Lonsdale
Ave., North Vancouver, V7M
2H4.

29

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