City officials estimate approximately 20,000 homes constructed before 1960 in the areas of Hamilton, Dundas, Waterdown and Stoney Creek still have lead pipes, which can pose health hazards to young children and pregnant women.
"When drinking water passes through or sits in lead water pipes there is opportunity for the lead to leach or dissolve from the lead pipe into the drinking water," said Eric Mathews, manager of the Safe Water Program with the City of Hamilton.
This affects variables in the water such as the PH level and the alkalinity, he explained.
"Exposure to lead can harm body systems, but especially with the brain, kidneys and reproductive system. Lead is particularly dangerous to children under the age of six years and to developing fetuses," Mathews said.
In an effort to overhaul these older systems the city launched community lead awareness initiatives in 2008 which are still ongoing seven years later.
The latest instalment in the initiative is the city giving out water filters to those who live in homes that qualify for the program.
"The recent neighbourhood lead awareness initiative is the latest in a series of public awareness campaigns. Four hundred and seventy filters were given out cost-free with the only conditions being that the recipient had to live in the (qualifying) neighbourhood and have young children. A discussion needed to happen between the resident and a public health worker to assess the risk/need for a water filter," Mathews said.
The filters were supplied with four cartridges providing approximately eight months’ worth of filtered drinking water.
The city fully acknowledges that the filters were not given out with the goal of providing ongoing treatment for residents, but to engage them and raise awareness of the risks their current service lines may pose and ideally, to take preventative action by continuing to purchase replacement cartridges themselves.
However, between the city’s initiative awareness programs and the likelihood of residents living in homes with lead lines continuing to replace their cartridges once the ones provided run out, it is estimated it could take up to 40 years to overhaul the system.
"We currently replace 500 to 1,000 (lead pipe systems) per year," Mathews confirms.
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