Get the Lead Out

If you could save a child from the harmful health effects of lead at little or no cost, wouldn’t you want to take action?

Everyone knows lead poses health risks for kids. In fact, the National Center for Disease Control says there is absolutely no safe level of lead in the bloodstream of young children. Harmful health effects of lead include reduced IQ, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, behavioral problems, stunted growth, impaired hearing, and kidney damage. Between 14% and 20% of the total childhood lead exposure comes from drinking water that flows through plumbing with too much lead.

I have posed this question to my legislative colleagues with Assembly Bill 1953 which will phase-out the use of lead plumbing materials in both homes and large water utilities. Lead is commonly used as a component in brass water utility and household plumbing parts and fixtures. As water moves from the water main through the water meter and valves and into the household plumbing, lead can leach from lead-brass parts into drinking and washing water. As many as 20% of Californians are getting water with elevated lead levels.

A.B. 1953 offers the solution to this problem. By phasing out the use of lead in plumbing materials, our water and our children will be safer. Passing this bill will not be easy. We won passage in the Assembly by a vote of 41-37, but w're facing a tough fight in the Senate.

Several major utilities in California, including East Bay Municipal Utility District, the L.A. Department of Water and Power, and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission have already begun voluntary programs to install plumbing parts that are lead-free. Furthermore, the San Francisco PUC offers lead-free household fixtures for sale to customers at a discount.

Lead in drinking water should be a significant concern to the health of all Californians, especially the most vulnerable, our children. With new lead-free plumbing materials available today, there is absolutely no reason California’s lawmakers should allow old style lead products to be used.

We know there is too much lead in our drinking water and AB 1953 offers the solution. Don’t our children deserve that?


Assemblywoman Wilma Chan is Chairwoman of the Assembly Health Committee. She represents Oakland, Alameda and Piedmont in the California Assembly.