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Are galvanized water mains safe?

My situation is two fold. I not only work with galvo steel, but our home is pre 1940, and the water main is made of galvo, I once made a repair to the pipe and the inner lining is very corroded. Does any one know if there's any health risk?

Richard White
heating engineer - Birmingham, West Midlands, UK
2004

In the US water lines can only be copper pipe with lead free solder so I would say to replace the galvanized with copper.

Simon Dupay
- Roseville, Minnesota, USA
2004

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Hi, Richard. If the pipe is badly corroded, there is no galvanizing left on it, since the zinc must dissolve before the steel can corrode. Although Simon is probably correct about what is considered best practice today, tens or hundreds of millions of people have had galvanized piping, while other millions have collected rainwater from galvanized roofs and/or stored drinking water in galvanized tanks. And countless millions of farm animals continue to eat and drink from galvanized feeders and troughs to this day. Galvanized water piping may not be the best practice, but is clearly not acutely hazardous.

But corroded steel pipe with no galvanizing probably has little life expectancy left.

If in working with galvanizing you are welding it, please search the site for metal fume fever. Good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
Need quick confidential answers? $25
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November 4, 2008

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