How can I find out how much lead is in our drinking water?
Testing is the only way to know whether your water contains lead. You cannot see, taste or smell lead in drinking water. Testing is important if your home has lead pipes, lead-containing fixtures or lead solder.
As part of a new State law under House Bill 22-1358, all child care centers are required to test for lead in their drinking water by May 31, 2023. If lead is found above the action level, the Test and Fix Water for Kids program will help lower lead levels in your water.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment created the Test and Fix Water for Kids program to provide free help to child care programs. This includes:
- Free help to plan and collect samples.
- Free training on the right way to fill sample bottles.
- Free bottles delivered to you with labels and instructions.
- Free postage to return samples to the laboratory.
- Free assistance to understand results and plan the next steps.
- Reimbursement of certain costs to fix problems at taps that exceed the action level.
The first step to meeting the program requirements is to fill out this quick form.
You will need your child care provider license number to complete the above form. Please also indicate in the form if you have already tested in the voluntary WIIN program in 2022 with Larimer County.
Who is most at risk?
Infants and children are more vulnerable to lead than adults. This is because their smaller bodies need to eat, drink and breathe more often. Because they spend the majority of their time on the floor or ground, they may eat or breathe-in more dirt or dust than an adult. Any dirt or dust ingested that contains lead then enters their blood and can affect their rapid growth and development.
What about other uses of water?
Bathing, showering, washing dishes, and washing clothes in water that contains lead is safe. Human skin does not absorb lead in water and very little water will remain on clothes or dishes after washing.
Because infants and toddlers are especially sensitive to lead exposure, wash baby bottles and sippy cups with filtered or bottled water.
What if results show high levels of lead?
In most cases, high lead levels are associated with plumbing inside the home or child care facility. Even though lead based plumbing materials were banned in 1986, further reductions in the quantity of lead in plumbing materials did not go into effect until 2014. Sources of lead could be a fixture, like a sink or faucet, that contains small amounts of lead or brass.
There are simple and inexpensive options for alleviating the risks of lead exposure, from running faucets prior to use or installing filter systems. Testing is the only way to determine if an issue may be present and is the reason LCDHE is offering this program.
