America has a lead pipe problem – and a plan to solve it

There are an estimated 9.2 million lead pipes that carry water into homes across America, according to a first-of-its-kind survey published Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The survey data will be used to dictate how to spend billions of federal dollars set aside as part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which set a goal of removing all of America’s lead water pipes. If this scenario was in the board game Clue, the winning answer would be Uncle Sam, with the lead pipe, in the water treatment plant.

For those unaware, lead is toxic to humans at any dose – and unlike most other toxins, the human body can’t purge itself of lead through metabolism and excretion. Instead, the metal becomes deposited in the bones and stays with that person for the rest of their life.

• High levels of lead exposure can be fatal, but even a small amount can result in symptoms like learning difficulties, increased aggression, hyperactivity, kidney damage, and infertility. The after-effects of lead exposure can take years to fully emerge, especially in young children.

🚰 Why was lead so widely used?... It wasn’t until the late 1970s that scientists discovered the dangers of lead exposure in smaller amounts. Prior to that, lead was incorporated into a wide variety of products – like pipes, cans, gasoline, paint, and children’s toys – due to its high levels of durability, malleability, and corrosion resistance.

🧠 Zoom out: Lead that can come into contact with humans, if left unaddressed, could also cause America to play out Idiocracy irl. Lead exposure was responsible for the loss of a combined 824+ million IQ points among the 2015 US population – or an average of 2.6 lost IQ points/person – according to peer-reviewed research from last year.