No More Lead: New Electrochemical Method Can Rapidly Improve Drinking Water Safety

The 2014 crisis of lead contamination in drinking water resulted in the poisoning of tens of thousands of children and twelve Legionnaires' disease-caused death in Flint, Michigan. These days, there are still millions of lead-containing service pipes under numerous cities in the US, yet no national plan to replace them with safe alternatives.

Although utility companies can treat water with phosphates additives to form a protective coating on the inside of these lead pipes (which takes years of continuous efforts), in case of a change of water chemistry the corrosion caused by chlorine can easily strip lead particles from the pipes and deliver them to your drinking tap.

A research team at the UC Berkeley developed a new technique to quickly restore anti-corrosion layers for the lead pipes in just hours, by applying electrochemical circuits. They hope that this fast, inexpensive method can soon be brought into use so that millions of Americans won't be at risk of lead poisoning anymore.

This ground-breaking research will be presented at the 2019 ACS Spring National Meeting & Exposition.

Source: ACS via Youtube