Dangers of Plastic Pipes for Home Plumbing

What are the pipes used in your home plumbing made of? Well, they’re probably plastic, but I’m not here to get you all depressed about your plumbing. I’m here to tell you what you can do about it.  Most often, you don’t have a say in what’s used to plumb your house, but I do get the question a lot, “Is my plastic home plumbing safe?” So here’s the skinny.Most new homes use PEX. It’s flexible plastic hose made of crosslinked HDPE (high density polyethylene), a resin that is generally not a big problem for leaching chemicals into water, but the crosslinking process added some complications.Researchers looked at 8 brands of PEX pipes and tested for chemical contamination leaching out of the pipes into the water not just after initial installation, but over the lifetime of the pipes. What they found was, it’s true that most of the exposure and health risk comes from residue on the pipes from the factory, and is highest in the first few months of use. But for some PEX brands, chemicals leached out over the lifetime of the pipe. Some can cause cancer. They identified 62 different chemicals that leached from the pipes—some of which had no existing health data. That’s a little concerning.

What should you do if your house has PEX plumbing? You can’t exactly rip all the pipes out of your walls. But here’s what you can do.  You could flush the lines before drinking after a new install or any time you’ve been away, but because it’s been demonstrated that PEX pipes release toxins over their lifetime, your only logical means of protection is to filter your water at the point where it leave the PEX pipes and right before it goes in your mouth. That usually means at the kitchen sink. And you’ll want to use a filtration system using reverse osmosis, but make sure your system includes an activated charcoal filter. R/o removes most contaminants in tap water, but charcoal is needed to get the small organic compounds that PEX plastics introduce. This is your only guarantee of clean and pure drinking water. Adding activated charcoal filter heads to your bath and shower takes it to one more level of protection, but I believe the biggest concern is oral consumption.