(NaturalNews) Allowing your kids to play with the garden hose, filling the inflatable kiddie pool, nourishing your garden with hose water — these all seem like harmless activities. However, research is now proving otherwise.
Many commercially bought water hoses contain dangerously high levels of lead which leech into the water flowing through them. In fact, according to Consumer Reports, water sitting in a garden hose that has been left in the sun can contain a level of lead that reaches 100 times over what is considered a safe amount.
Many garden hoses are made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) – a toxic plastic – and lead is often used as a stabilizer in PVC. The dangerous levels of lead in garden hoses could potentially cause lead poisoning, cancer, birth defects and/or reproductive harm.
According to a special ABC report on Good Morning America, reporters from ABC’s Phoenix affiliate KNXV-TV randomly purchased 10 garden hoses at places such as Wal-Mart, Target, Ace Hardware, and Home Depot (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/…). These reporters filled sections of the garden hoses with clean water, sealed the ends and put these hoses outside for about a day. The water was then delivered to a lab.
Five of the 10 hoses, or 50%, came back showing levels of lead much higher than 15 parts per billion (ppb), which is what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) deems safe for drinking water. Four of those hoses came back showing extremely high lead levels. The same report found that some garden variety hoses are leaking up to 20 times the amount considered safe for usage. Consumer Reports also tested 16 of the most popular hoses sold nationwide, finding that many leached up to 100 times the safe amount at the initial flush of standing water.
Imagine the water flowing through these hoses contaminated with such high levels of lead – do you want your kids splashing around in it in a kiddie pool, or drinking it in the midst of summer play outdoors?
Read the rest of the article here:
http://www.naturalnews.com/033122_garden_hoses_lead.html
I thought all my Divine Earth brothers and sisters should know about this one! 🙂
You’re right, Mia ~ It’s a wonder we are all still alive ~
Well, I guess I wont be drinking water from my neighbors hose anymore…
It is a wonder we are all still alive, isn’t it?!? It is truly mind-boggling to think about all the poisons that are put into things we use every day – like water hoses! Extension cords (electrical) quite often have lead in them also, so when you touch them, you are subjecting your skin to the lead.
The idea of having lead in water hoses is a sobering thought when we consider the fact that bottled water is mostly unregulated. A person can use a water hose to fill up water bottles, label them, and sell them – lead and all! Also, think of the animals that receive their water through hoses – like horses, dogs, goats, etc. And, we wonder why our four-legged friends have such health problems today. The health problems of today did not happen 100 years ago. I doubt they had water hoses with lead in them back then! 🙂