Has NSF/ANSI Standard 61 reduced the amount of lead in plumbing products?
The U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act of 1986 restricted the lead content in plumbing products to less than 8 percent. A recent survey of products submitted to NSF for evaluation under Standard 61 shows that 89 percent of all metal parts in valves and water meters contain less than 3.7 percent lead, and two-thirds contain less than 0.5 percent lead. We attribute this consistently decreasing amount of lead in new plumbing products over the past two decades to manufacturers’ needs to receive NSF/ANSI 61 Certification and a sign of NSF/ANSI Standard 61’s impact on protecting public health from lead exposure from drinking water. In addition Annex G of NSF 61 contains an optional evaluation method for weighted average lead content of <0.25% which is now required in some states.
