My son and his young family recently moved to the Midwest. They bought a home that was built in 1952. Recently we visited them and found that their home has galvanized pipes for the water supply lines. I've never had galvanized pipes. I'm concerned about zinc in the water they drink.
Then I thought, even if we change all the pipes in the house, we don't know what was used back then to supply water from the city.
Anyone have any knowledge about old galvanized water supply pipes??

If they weren't safe,the entire population of the US would be DEAD. Galvanized was used extensively for 60 to 70 years.

Now, the 50+ year old pipes in your son's house are probably heavily corroded, causing reduced water flow and rust problems. It would be a good idea to put a repipe high on the "to-do" list for the house.

Zinc, in the proper amounts, is one of the essential nutrient minerals for humans. It is thougt by some to have beneficial effects with regard to treatment of the common cold. I have never seen any information suggesting that unhealth amounts of zinc are present in water through galv. pipes.



Post Edited

Galvanized pipes were the normal material once lead water pipes became obsolete inside the building. Even if zinc from the galvanizing were a problem, by now the interior of the pipes will be so corroded that there is either no zinc left, or it is all covered with rust. Depending on where you are in the midwest, they might have a lead water pipe coming into the house and it would be in the same condition, namely a patina covering the lead so it could not come in contact with the water. If they have any health issues with the house, the water pipes are not going to be one of them.

Not so on the lead service line part hj. Most if not all water companies in the US are under order of the US EPA to remove so many of those in their distribution area each year. They are doing that because there are many problems with the petina idea and it not working. Washington DC has had a serious problem with that for over 4 years now and some 20,000+ of their customers have had pinholes in copper tubing for the same reason. Boston, Seattle and others have the problem too, not to mention the 10s of thousands of small water systems across the US.

Gary

One way to deal with these concerns is to send a water sample off to a lab for analysis. A google for 'water testing' will get lots of hits, but read the fine print to see what you're getting.

Galvanized piping is rarely used in new residential construction anymore. It was used exclusively years ago and have never heard of any related health problems. Galvanized is still used for potable water on commercial jobs, usually if the lines are 6" or larger. Hard water will corrode the insides of galvanized over years. A water softener will help prevent corrosion in the pipes. Lead pipes on the other hand are no longer installed on new installations. Yet, many homes still are fed with lead water lines to the meter. The recomendation is to let the water run for several minutes before consuming, especially at first use in the morning. GOOD LUCK

Where I was in the Midwest we were still using lead services up to the water meters until 1968 when I moved from there. And I doubt that all of those millions of water services have been replaced since that time.

Yep, Chicago insisted on the use of lead serice line until '87 or so but look it up, lead service lines must be replaced over time.

Gary

Do you know dates for when the EPA required a percentage of lead pipes be removed each year? Or a site I could find the info? I'm also curious if anyone knows dates when lead pipes were generally used in home building. I know of homes in the 50s through at least part of the 80s in Oklahoma were built this way frequently...not all, but most.