I like clean water. I suspect you do too. There are a lot of things that could end up in drinking water, and there is a tremendous amount of engineering, testing, and government oversight that goes into making sure that you and I can drink the water coming out of the faucets across this country. Of all the things that could end up in water, lead is currently on most people’s minds, because of what has happened in Flint, MI, where dangerous levels of lead and other contaminants have made the local water undrinkable since 2014.

The Flint water crisis is a horrific example of government corruption, environmental racism, and a total disregard for public safety. It is especially chilling because it involves one of the most basic resources that we all take for granted: water. Since the crisis began in 2014, Flint residents have suffered from chemical burns, Legionnaires Disease, and, most famously, lead poisoning – and as of this writing they still don’t have clean drinking water coming from their taps.

All of this is why the recent advertisement from PUR seems so cynical, cruelly manipulative, and shockingly misleading. PUR is attempting to profit off a humanitarian crisis using the very reasonable fear of water insecurity, while ignoring the very basic science that renders its claims absurd.

So let’s get to the facts.

Is lead really bad for you? Oh yes – it really is. Lead can cause high blood pressure, joint and abdominal pain.  At high levels, it can cause neurological effects and anemia. The truth is, however, that’s it’s pretty hard to poison yourself with lead if you are an adult. You’d have to drink a lot of heavily contaminated water over a long period of time (definitely months, probably years) to see any effect on your health. Most documented examples of lead poisoning in adults come from occupational exposures, meaning people were exposed to lead at work. Steel and foundry workers, firing range workers, scrap metal recyclers, and painters (still using lead-based paint) are among those who might be exposed to high lead levels. Some people are also exposed to lead via their hobbies – things like pottery, stained glass, or hobbies that involve lead soldering or casting. Cigarette smoke is high in lead too. You shouldn’t smoke.

The real concern for lead is children – from newborns to adolescents – all children are much more susceptible to lead poisoning and neurological effects even at low levels of exposure. High lead exposure in children can lead to developmental delay and learning issues, and these effects can be permanent. Because lead can replace calcium in bones, children exposed to lead may continue to be “exposed” to it as the lead in their bones is slowly released over the span of years – even after they stop ingesting any additional lead. The effects of lead on children are a big reason why you can’t generally buy paint with lead in it anymore, nor can you buy leaded gas.  Thousands of children were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in Flint.

What are the acceptable levels for lead in tap water? During the early days of the Flint crisis, the EPA made it clear that it thinks there is no “safe” level for lead in drinking water. Personally, I find this to be a bit disingenuous, since by setting “acceptable” levels for lead in drinking water, the EPA is essentially calling these levels “safe enough.”  In truth, this is probably more of a nod to the risk/benefit profile of lead in drinking water. Lead provides no benefit, so any amount of risk is really too much to accept.

But the truth is that completely eliminating lead from water is essentially impossible. Lead is everywhere – it’s in the soil, it’s in the dust, it’s in a lot of glazed pottery – but most importantly, it’s in pipes. Back before 1920, 100% lead pipes were commonly used in water transport, and many are still in use today (usually in municipal water lines), including Flint, MI. Any home built before the mid 80’s at least has lead soldering used to connect its pipes. Replacing all the lead pipes with lead-free options is a huge job, and it will take many more decades. Lead pipes can still be safe, as long as the water isn’t too acidic (which leaches the lead out) and so long as the water doesn’t sit in the pipes without moving for extended periods of time.

The acceptable limit for lead in drinking water in the United States is 15 ppb.  Ppb stands for parts per billion, which means that if there is more than 15 molecules of lead for every billion total molecules in a sample, that’s too high. As a decimal, it looks like this: 0.000000015. That’s not a lot. There is a consensus that there is no significant risk to adults at levels below 15 ppb. The data is less clear for children – particularly newborns, for whom levels as low as 5 ppb could potentially have negative effects.

Wouldn’t drinking water with lower levels of lead be “more safe”? Not necessarily.  We have already established that there is no risk to adults at these levels, so the answer for the adults in this ad is no. It’s also important to note that under normal circumstances, only 20% of all the lead you are exposed to comes from water. The other 80% comes from food, dust, soil, and the air. You have lead in your body right now, and you likely have for your entire life. It would only be “more safe” to reduce lead levels lower then the acceptable limits when children are involved – particularly if it is the main water source in a child’s home we are talking about.

How much of the lead would this PUR filter remove? The PUR filter advertised in this ad will remove 99% of the lead in your water. This is true in it’s effective range, which isn’t likely to include very high lead levels. Also, each filter is good for only 100 gallons of water – which you would use if you left your faucets running for less than an hour.

Why is this commercial so misleading? The potential customers in this ad refuse to drink the water with “acceptable” levels of lead, implying that this water poses a risk to their health. It poses no risk to adults, and depending on the levels (which are never mentioned), it may pose no risk to children too. The vast majority of tap water in this country contains lead levels well below 15 ppb, but all the tap water in this country likely contains some lead. We all have lead in our bodies right now.  It is “normal” for an adult to have a up to 10 ug/L (micrograms are 1000th of a gram, in a liter) in their blood.  It might interest you to know that these levels are five times higher than the 15 ppm “acceptable” level in drinking water. That’s right – there may be more lead in you already than there would be in tap water that barely meets the EPA acceptance level.

The actors refused to drink the water, implying it was “bad”, or even unsafe. The implication is that filtered water would be “safer.” For these adults, it is not. There is also an implication that the PUR filter will remove all of the lead in the water. It will not. Removing 99% of 15 ppb still leaves you with 0.15 ppb lead. Since both the filtered and unfiltered water contains safe levels of lead, the reasonable thing to do would be to drink the unfiltered water.  Had PUR included children in their add, it may have made more sense, since “acceptable” levels could still be dangerous to kids.  However, without saying what these levels are, the add is still misleading.  What if the levels were 0.01 ppb?  At such a low level, filtering would have no benefit to the health of adults or children. I am certainly not suggesting that filtering water is bad, or that this product won’t reduce the lead levels in your water. PUR is not guilty of making a bad product, but they are guilty of playing on consumer fears in an effort to make a buck.