Someone told me that if you boil water more than 5 minutes it produces some lead. Is this true?

Answer 1

No, there is no Lead (Pb) in water (H2O)

Answer 2

Some older plumbing may contain metal pipes soldered with pipesolder which contains lead. This lead can leach out into your water that is standing in those metal pipes. Hot water tends to leach it faster.

You can avoid contamination by running your water for a bit before getting your drinking water. This will remove quite a bit of the lead contamination.

However, it you have the metal pipes instaed of PVC and there are lead ions in the water... the longer you boil the water the less water remains in the pan and the more concentrated the lead ions become in the remaining water.

I think this is what you are asking in a round about way. But boiling itself does not change water into lead. Boiling removes the water and leaves the lead and other minerals as a whitish scale in the pan.

Answer 3

Hi mom. If the water you are boiling is tap water, and it has not been filtered, there could very well be traces of lead in it. Boiling water will not evaporate nor produce lead. It will just drive off the carbon dioxide molecules. In order to find out how much lead is in your tap, you have the right to request a free chemistry report from your city hall. The city should have sent you this report annually, anyway. Remember the movie Erin Brokovich? You have the right to know...

Answer 4

It is not that the boiling produces lead. If there are trace amounts of lead in your tap water and you boil the water down, you are "burning off" water vapour, but not any lead particulate. That means that if you boil water down from 2 cups to 1 cup, you will have increased the amount of lead in that 1 cup by 100%. That could still be well within medical guidelines (although we are turning into walking toxic dumps, aren't we?)

Don't get all panicky on me yet!

A lot of older plumbing may have lead in the pipes - it was used in soldering, and used as an alloy. Believe it or not, a lot of us do have minute traces of lead in our water. You can have it checked by sending a sample to an environmental lab in your area and asking for a test - shouldn't be too expensive - $50 Canadian.

While we don't need this metal in our bloodstream, there are a lot of other things in our water, too. But don't buy the hogwash that bottled water is better - it usually isn't and isn't even as regulated by government as tap water. Also, children in our generation are getting cavities again - no floride in bottled water.

If you are concerned, have it tested (before boiling), and always, always let your water run for a good 40 seconds before putting it in anything you eat - this allows the metals accummulating in the pipes to be flushed out before they reach your glass!

Answer 5

it all depends on what you boil the water in, a aluminum kettle might give u the whole lead thing. its down to whats its boiled in

Answer 6

If you can boil water to make lead, DOW Chemical wants to talk to you.

Answer 7

Yes sir, along with other minerals and metals.

Find yourself a small dark plastic cup, keep a little water out of a household faucet in it over a period of time and let it evaporate naturally and see what you've got.

Even water purified with over-the-counter purifiers will leave a residue.

Answer 8

uhmm...no water has no lead element in it, so it cannot produce lead simply by boiling.

Answer 9

only if it contains lead---can't get chicken soup from just boiled water

Answer 10

ridiculous!

But maybe boiling it on a lead base pot will