Your Latest D-I-Y Project: Testing Your Home for Lead and Radon

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Performing a D-I-Y test for lead or radon in your home? What to know before you read the results.

It doesn’t take a super sleuth to detect two invisible hazards possibly lurking in your home: radon and lead. A variety of D-I-Y test kits found online and in home-improvement stores can flag these threats. But their effectiveness varies based on the type of test purchased and how it is used.

Lead is a toxic metal that can cause serious physical and behavioral effects, especially in children. Homes in older cities and those built before 1986 are more likely to have lead in water lines and plumbing fixtures than newer homes. You can find out more about the quality of the municipal water supply in your area by contacting your city’s water department, which issues an annual water-quality report. But here’s the problem: The report won’t necessarily reflect the quality of water coming out of your home’s tap, says Rebecca Kriss of the Virginia Water Resources Research Institute. It could be tainted by lead pipes or lead-soldered fittings in your own plumbing or the plumbing that comes from the street to the house.

As part of her doctoral research at Virginia Tech University, Ms. Kriss in 2018 launched a study of consumer test kits designed to detect lead in drinking water. The research found that positive-negative testing kits—similar to a pregnancy test—were the most effective. A test strip is left in a water sample, which indicates positive or negative results. This type of test typically costs between $13 and $40 and can yield results in a few minutes.

Also, while the tests are able to detect dissolved lead in drinking water, many can’t detect lead particles. The Virginia Tech team added 2 teaspoons of lemon juice to a 1-cup water sample and let it sit overnight. The acid in the juice dissolved some of the lead particles, giving a more accurate reading.

 

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