No wonder I'm sick

Ok, so I went down south to Vancouver to pick up my new (newer used) Ford Explorer.

While I was away, my wife did some summer cleaning through the house. Now, for the past month or so we've had terrible water pressure. Where I live, all the water is shared between homes. Anyways, the line below the ground broke, and the plumbers dug it up and fixed it. So I had no water for about 4 hours one day, no biggie, since I was at work anyways. Ever since then, we've had crappy water pressure in all our taps

Anywho, so my wife figured it out. She took all the ends / filters off the taps, and they were full of dirt, pebbles and who knows what else considering the pipes underground are fixed with lots of solder when they break.

I've been feeling crappy for about a month now, stuffy nose, headaches, sore throat sometimes, etc. I thought it was allergies at first, as it wasn't a full blown cold, and I was having symptoms for far too long. Now today, only a few days after not drinking the crap water anymore, I have a full blown cold (am drinking nothing but green tea at the moment). Since I don't really know what the effects of drinking water that's been filtered through solder is, I began reading up online about it's effects. One of the effects is autoimmune deficiency, hence why my "cold" never decided to go away and why my immune system never killed it.

Anyways, a completely random, but slightly interesting story. Hopefully I get well soon

/me goes back to drinking his green tea

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laaaaaaaawsuite lol

nah, hope you get better soon, i've been in the same situation you're in (aside from being sick, lol). And it can't be good to drink that water... I've got one of those brita water-filter things you fill up and throw in your fridge... consider one to help somewhat! lol

Suppose i take living in the country with my own well for granted at times.

Originally Posted by Robb4248

nah, hope you get better soon, i've been in the same situation you're in (aside from being sick, lol). And it can't be good to drink that water... I've got one of those brita water-filter things you fill up and throw in your fridge... consider one to help somewhat! lol

I got one a few weeks ago for the fridge, and I replaced the filter in it, since it wasn't really designed to remove that much lead contamination.

Originally Posted by Mark

Suppose i take living in the country with my own well for granted at times.

Yeah, I never even considered contaminated water a possibility. It would have come out in a blood test, which was the next thing my doctor was going to order.

My house i live in now has a well (but it's shared, lol)

...I thought solder had to be lead free these days?! I'm certain of it......

Originally Posted by jeaniesing

...I thought solder had to be lead free these days?! I'm certain of it......

Consumer solder is, yep. But the pipes that run the water to myself and all my neighbours are huge cast iron, and lead solder must be used to properly connect the joints (or so I've been told).

Even if the new solder was lead-free, the old solder that was originally used sure would contain lead in it, and shards / particles could have gotten into the pipes during fixing.

wow, that is kinda scary. that kinda stuff always scares me. You never know what other stuff like that is floating around ou neighborhoods

I highly doubt that an underground pipe has any solder on it. Welded yes, soldered no. Seen many an underground water line and never one that was soldered.

ew

i have like 8927892347 deerparks stored in the cellar

I guess its time to start investing in bottled water.

All I know is, I was drinking some nasty stuff that was being filtered through particles of shiney metallic looking stuff.

I feel a lot better now tho

whether it was solder or welding slag, if you know something like that has happened (line being worked on) its always good practice to flush out your line by doing exactly what you did. I do that with mine periodically anyway.

that really sucks sorry man, get well soon if you arnt already.

I drink bottled water only. I just don't trust drinking water from pipes that years and years old. They get crap built up on the inside of them after a long time. I only cook and wash dishes with tab water.