Originally Posted by jhan523

Lol, I was thinking how ironic it is that a university has lead in their water.

People may say, well the university is really old. My response is, seriously? It's 2010, all the pipes should have been replaced years ago.

Lead pipes were still in common use even after WWII, most Ontario universities have a "deferred maintenance " bill in the tens to hundreds of millions of dollars due to cutbacks in the 1990's that have never been restored. Replacing old unsafe pipes and the asbestos scattered all over campus likely falls into that category. According to the spec, McMaster had deferred maintenance estimated at over $150 million in 2008. At the time $9 million in stimulus money was put towards the some of those projects:
http://www.thespec.com/article/316888

When copper piping first came into use it the solder used contained lead as well, so its also possible the piping is fine, but the joints are leaching enough lead to exceed the provincial regulations. Basically, these sort of health and safety issues are common at Universities (across Canada, although Ontario is especially bad), you might hope not to find them here, but Universities are actually one of the places you're most likely to find issues like asbestos, unsafe drinking water and poor indoor air quality.

Maybe the Bio department can use it to make less god-awful, useless labs....

Is that why one of the one in the Arts maze is covered in plastic? I thought it was broken, but maybe its Pb full?

I don't think copper solder that contains some lead is enough to cause that much lead leaching though. The water traveling through the pipes isn't hot water, at least not the ones leading to the drinking fountains anyways.

Asbestos is fine as long no one is stupid enough to disturb it, that can wait. But lead is a major problem and should have been fixed by now.

http://www.epa.gov/safewater/lead/lead1.html
It's funny because flushing your water is both costly and wasteful and environmentally irresponsible and could have been prevented if we'd just replaced all our pipes.

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/tips/water.htm

Originally Posted by rcrw88

Noooooooooooooooo

I drink there a few times a week because I thought it was safe in light of the signs up in the student centre/Gilmore Hall..

:(

that building was under the list of 'safe' buildings, if you read the post carefully

The newer residence buildings should be fine. However, MOST of the residence buildings on-campus would still have lead piping. I think residence buildings are really a bigger concern than KTH, BSB, Gilmour Hall, etc. just because people actually live there during the year. I imagine that constantly flushing water through the pipes WOULD dilute lead levels throughout the year to (perhaps) safer levels. However, the pipes in these residence buildings are not used throughout the summer (except in Keyes and Hedden where guests may stay). Therefore.. lead levels would probably be at their peak at the beginning of September.. no, that is not a comforting thought. I'm just saying that the tests could be biased depending on when/where they are done, and how often the pipes are used.

If you're really worried about lead ...

http://www.brita.net/uk/brita_inform...e=1&sword_list[0]=lead

Originally Posted by nerual

that building was under the list of 'safe' buildings, if you read the post carefully

Whoops, those on the list are safe, not dangerous, LMAO I fail at reading. :(

Originally Posted by jhan523

Lol, I was thinking how ironic it is that a university has lead in their water.

How is that ironic?

If there was lead in the drinking water at a water treatment facility or the head office of health canada, that would be ironic.

Originally Posted by Abid.Hasan

How is that ironic?

If there was lead in the drinking water at a water treatment facility or the head office of health canada, that would be ironic.

Lead is known to cause neurological problems, therefore it's ironic how such a problem is at a place of higher education.