10 Chemical Week/November 26. 1986
PVC producers' hopes rise as lead use sinks
Producers of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and PVC pipe are keeping a close eye on a movement afoot in Washington, D. C., to lower the regulated level of lead in drinking water under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) from the current standard of 50 micrograms/liter. Offi cials at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) say that next year, based on a soon-to-be-released study conduct ed within the agency, EPA may propose 20 microg/1 as the "enforceable" level for lead in drinking water. That won't go all the way toward pleasing some environmentalists, who would like to see U.S. drinking water free of lead
A Division oI The Society ot The Plastics Industry, Inc.
_ __
Roy T. Gottes
Executive Directoi
For your information.
November 26. 1966/Chemical Week 11
Snider hopes codes "open up" lor PVC pipe.
end ether eontemlnnnle from pipes, including copper. This month, for exam ple, the Washington, D. C.-based Envi ronmental Defense Fund (EDF) demand
ed that EPA drop the allowable level of lead in drinking water to 10 microg/1. The 20-microg/l proposal does, however, have potentially pleasing implications for the PVC producers who have long been fighting to get their products into the mainstream of use in home construction.
Increases. "If EPA reduces the lead threshold limits," says Roy T. Gottesman, executive director of the Vinyl In
stitute (Wayne, N.J.), which represents the major producers of PVC resin, "that,
coupled with the fact that Congress has
banned lead solder use by 1989," may
lead to a big increase in PVC resin pro duction. U. S. consumption of PVC resin
will reach about 7.2 billion lb this year; roughly 1.8 billion lb went into various kinds of pipe. While use of PVC in potable-water delivery pipe is "well under" the 1.8 billion lb figure, says Gottesman, the potential increase for PVC, should EPA lower the lead-in-water threshold, is in the range of "hun dreds of millions" of pounds. "I would expect long term this would present an opportunity for the PVC pipe industry,"
Silbergeld: A 20-microg/l level is nol sufliciem
too, says George R. Snider, Jr., director of external srfulrs for BFGoodrlch'e Geon Vinyl division in Cleveland.
Other recent federal government ac-
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t
Wh r lead levels in water
'' exceed'EPA's standard* i l"Vi
. ...`.t.. Rang* of laad
i'ii;.Numbolr J'.'y- inis,amples taken
sut*:
p,r bim"-
Arizona
18
' Colorado 'vtT<V/'Tv^S?
5.0 to 300.0 to 500.0 ;
Connecticut
23 0.0 to 120.0
Rorida; rr-fS7.v.TJ!;'>52..^'i;AV!s{ 0.0 to 1,800.0
`Illinois Indiana`v ;;/,[
133 0.0 to 10,000.0 ' v 7^`"7 0.0 to 650.0
Massachusetts
145................... 0.0 to 1,000.0
Michigan'!/., ; ;,^'n.^34?5/f>?WZF) 0-0 to 300.0 ;..!
Minnesota
44 0.0 to 132.0 " f
| North Carolina
t'-'ii*IJ24.?j%.? .0 to 200.0
VNew Hampshire 47" 0.0 to 347.0 u'
N ew Jrteyj,f.^6^`57` 93;'^; -v.j 0.0 to 600.0
f-1 New York
157 o.o to 4oo.o ;
* Ohio0.0 to 210.0"',"
` Pennsylvania
107 0.0 to 250.0 :/
` Rhoda ldand t-><'"rl;W^6.13'?^?lff?;?;':; 0.0 to 77.0 , .
. South Oakota
10 2.5 to 66.0, .,
` Vermont . *;
:V.vJ97J?y;/' . 0.0 to 26!T.b
.Washington
24 0.0 to 110.0
f , * *50 parts par billion. Sourca: Environmental Prelection `'i .
Agency.
*'
Alternatives to metal pipes and lead solders may become even more attractive if EDF and other environmental groups decide to really fight EPA on its pro posed 20-microg/l lead
threshold. "Millions of Americans are at risk from lead contamina tion in drinking water
arising from the use of lead in pipes and pipe solders," EDF says. A 20-microg/l standard is "not sufficient to really make a dent on the lead epidemic," adds El len K. Silbergeld, a se nior scientist at EDF. She contends that 20 microg/1 would pose an excessive risk for a
large percentage of the population. More than
88% of the children in the U. S. already have
unacceptably high lev
lions strengthen the probability of in els of lead in their blood, she says, and
creased use of PVC as a substitute for more than 75% of all Americans are un
potable-water pijjps made of metal and acceptably exposed to lead. .
soldered with lead. The SDWA, signed `No threshold.' Some EPA employees
into law June 19 by President Reagan, agree with Silbergeld's arguments.
forbids the use of new pipes or patches There is a "whole pile of data showing
to existing pipes having lead content there is no threshold" level below which
that exceeds 8%.'States that do not en lead ingestion is safe, says Ronnie Lev
force the law's standards for pipe and in, an EPA technician who is preparing
solder by June 19, 1988, can lose up to a cost-benefit analysis in support of the
5% of their grant money from EPA for agency's 20-microg/l proposal. Recently,
public drinking water systems. Also be EPA's Clean Air Scientific Advisory
ginning on that date, the U. S. Dept of Committee, which reviewed two docu
Housing and Urban Development and ments related to the development of
the Veterans Administration may not National Ambient Air Quality Stan
provide mortgage insurance or other as dards for Lead, said new evidence
sistance for new residential property if shows that levels of lead in blood as low
plumbing contains lead in excess of the as 10-15 microg/deciliter of blood can
specified SDWA limits--i.e., no more cause adverse health effects. EPA's cur
than 0.2% lead in solder or flux, and rent lead standards, for both air and
no more than 8% lead in pipe or pipe water, are based on the assumption that
fittings.
adverse effects were seen at blood lead
Copper levels. In addition, the law levels above 30 microg/dl.
sets a new minimum contaminant level Another issue raised by Levin's forth
for copper, notes Richard W. Church, coming report is how much lead is actu
executive director of the Plastic Pipe ally getting into drinking water. Al
and Fittings Assn, in Glen Ellen, III. though EPA measures lead content in
"Copper now must be examined as a water mains that have been flushed to
primary contaminant, as opposed to a remove standing sediment, Levin's data
secondary contaminant," he asserts. In indicate that 38 million people in the
setting a primary drinking water stan U. S. drink water with more than 20 mi
dard for copper, EPA will be forced to crog/1 lead. That is because lead solder
closely scrutinize copper, he notes. "If I on pipe joints in individual houses and
were a regulator," Church says, "and I from other sources gets into the water
were worried about meeting tie federal after it leaves the main.
drinking water standards, I would start Levin's study shows only one state,
looking very seriously at plastic pipe." Illinois, exceeding its permissible 50-mi-
crog/l average limit. However, 19 states had individual samples well in excess of the 50-microg/l standard (table, le/l). In Illinois, of 133 samples, average lead levels in water were 87 microg/l. Levin also has found that soft water leaches out more lead than hard water.
Questionable data. Some EPA offi cials contend that Levin's data are flawed. Denise Murk, a state project of ficer for Illinois and Wisconsin at EPA's Region 5 (Chicago), says that the test results are "a misrepresentation." One sample--tested at 10,000 microg/l-- pulled the average up for Illinois, she says. "All it says is that they had one really bad sample in the group."
EDF*s Silbergeld also feels the data are questionable, but comes to the oppo site conclusion. "The problem," she says, "may be even worse than that sketched in the EPA study, because much of the data was taken inaccurate ly and does not capture hot spots, or variations in lead contamination, which are not reflected by averaging data."
A recently completed study by the Vi
nyl Institute tends to support Levin's assertion that lead is a drinking water problem. The institute, Gottesman says, commissioned McKesson Environmental Sciences (Dublin, Calif.) to conduct a se ries of leachate tests using a protocol designed by the state of California that compared a copper piping system using lead solder at the joints with chlorinated
12 Chemical Week/November 26, 1986
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PVC (CPVC) pipe. A conclusion of the 75day study, which was completed early `his summer, is that the levels of lead
.nd copper leachate were "very high and potentially unhealthy," Gottesman says. When a common home water soft ener was used in one test, he says, cop per and lead levels increased over the entire 75-day period and eventually ex ceeded EPA drinking water standards. For CPVC pipe, he adds, no highly toxic materials leached into the water.
"What was found were some fairly low levels of solvent cement, some low levels of the materials used in the ce ment," Gottesman says. That leachate decreased rapidly, he notes. "The health effects of metal pipe leachate appear to
be much greater. We're having a risk assessment document done, but it's not yet complete." Still, he predicts the study will show that plastic piping is a safe material. "Plastic pipe has been tested by the National Sanitation Foun
dation for well over 25 years," he notes. Building bans. Despite the long histo
ry of PVC pipe safety tests, many state building codes ban the use of plastic pipe. Snider hopes that the renewed "fo cus on lead... may lead to the opening up of building codes" to include PVC pipe. Until now, Snider says, plumbers' unions have successfully fought the in clusion of PVC pipe in the codes. "We have certainly seen signs of that," he contends, "notably in California."
EPA's Levin also has heard argu ments from plumbers against banning lead solder. Their reasoning, she says, is that using tin antimony, the only flux substitute, is too expensive. "That's true as far as the solder cost goes, since they will have to use tin antimo ny," she says, but the price increase will only go "from $2/house to $4/ house."
Plumbers also argue that using plas tic pipe as a substitute for metal pipe systems is dangerous because, should a building catch fire, the fumes from the PVC pipe would be toxic. Also, they con
tend, the solvent used to join the pipe sections gives off dangerous fumes.
Plumbers "will tell you they're only interested in the safety of the pipe," says one plastics industry representa tive. However, he believes the real rea son for their opposition is economic. "Plastic pipe is so easy to install, it cre ate* a market for do-it-youraelfera."
In the end, say PVC resin and pipe manufacturers, the adverse health ef fects of lead solder and metal pipe are bound to force increased use of plastic pipes. "I would have to say that the ultimate effect" of all the new informa
tion condemning lead pipe and lead sol
der "should be an increase in the use of
plastic pipe," says Gottesman. "That's
what we would be looking for."
LAURIE A. RICH and REGINALD RHEIN in IftuAmplon, un'M Judith Fahyt in Chicago
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November 26, 1986/Cnfflic*J Waek 13