Hundreds of Belfast homes will be tested for lead contamination after an earlier study found elevated levels of the dangerous metal in drinking water. A small study by Queen’s University researchers found that 15% of the samples collected exceeded the standard UK limit for lead levels in water. The study also found at least some lead in all of the houses tested and stated that “there is no safe threshold of exposure to lead”. The team estimates that around 25% of homes in NI have water pipes made from lead.

A team from the University will now carry out a larger study of 300 homes in the city to try and learn the extent of the “silent crisis” of contaminated water. Lead contaminated water can cause a variety of health problems even at low levels particularly for young children. It can affect brain development and kidneys, and is linked by research to heart disease, social deviance and cancer. Lead piping is common in NI homes built before 1970.

The UK reference limit for lead in water is 10 µgPb/L, whereas five of the Belfast samples were higher than 50 µgPb/L and one as high as 95.2 µgPb/L. Dr Tristan Sturm, one of the team of researchers working on the project, said that the UK limit on lead is itself a “false economy of safety”. “We would argue that it should be much lower, so to find that some houses were vastly higher than this was quite shocking.”

Dr Strum added: “Without proper testing of drinking water, our cities are complicity producing the next generation of children who might under-perform, be prone to violence, or suffer debilitating bodily harm relative to their unexposed peers.”

NI Water said it welcomed the findings and the research. It said: “NI Water tests drinking water supplied to customer homes, across Northern Ireland, 365 days per year, including weekends and bank holidays, to ensure that drinking water supplied to our customers is of the best possible quality. There is almost no lead in drinking water when it leaves our water treatment works or in our water mains. Any lead in drinking water usually comes from lead service pipes in the home.”

The full news report from ITV can be read here. Also, a full historical and current narrative of the issue can be read at the Conversation here.