Challenges of Detecting Lead in Drinking Water Using at-Home Test Kits

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorKriss, Rebeccaen
dc.contributor.authorPieper, Kelsey J.en
dc.contributor.authorParks, Jeffrey L.en
dc.contributor.authorEdwards, Marc A.en
dc.contributor.departmentCivil and Environmental Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2021-05-24T14:24:11Zen
dc.date.available2021-05-24T14:24:11Zen
dc.date.issued2021-02-02en
dc.description.abstractLead in drinking water remains a significant human health risk. At-home lead in water test kits could provide consumers with a convenient and affordable option to evaluate this risk, but their accuracy and reliability is uncertain. This study examined the ability of at-home lead test kits to detect varying concentrations of dissolved and particulate lead in drinking water. Sixteen brands representing four test kit types (binary color, binary strip, colorimetric vial, and color strip) were identified. Most kits (12 of 16 brands) were not suitable for drinking water analysis, with lead detection limits of 5-20 mg/L. Binary strips detected dissolved lead at drinking water-relevant levels but failed to detect particulate lead. Household acids (lemon juice and vinegar) improved the strip's ability to detect lead by dissolving some of the lead particulates to the point soluble lead exceeded 15 mu g/L. These results illustrate the applications of at-home testing kits for drinking water analysis, highlight limitations and areas for possible improvement, and put forth a testing protocol by which new at-home lead test kits can be judged.en
dc.description.notesThis research was supported by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) "Untapping the Crowd: Consumer Detection and Control of Lead in Drinking Water"(#8399375) and Spring Point Partners LLC. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Spring Point Partners LLC or the US EPA. This work used shared facilities at the Virginia Tech National Center for Earth and Environmental Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NanoEarth), a member of the National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI), supported by NSF (ECCS 1542100).en
dc.description.sponsorshipU.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA)United States Environmental Protection Agency [8399375]; NSFNational Science Foundation (NSF) [ECCS 1542100]; Spring Point Partners LLCen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c07614en
dc.identifier.eissn1520-5851en
dc.identifier.issn0013-936Xen
dc.identifier.issue3en
dc.identifier.pmid33428401en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/103453en
dc.identifier.volume55en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en
dc.titleChallenges of Detecting Lead in Drinking Water Using at-Home Test Kitsen
dc.title.serialEnvironmental Science & Technologyen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
acs.est.0c07614.pdf
Size:
1.82 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Published version
Download

Collections

Scholarly Works, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Destination Area: Global Systems Science (GSS)