Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead
Access the guide to identify lead pipes and reduce risk from lead in drinking water
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Protect Your Tap Basics
What is Protect Your Tap?
Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead is an online step-by-step guide to help people identify lead pipes, called lead service lines, in their homes. It also provides tips on actions to reduce lead exposure in drinking water, information on certified laboratories for water testing, and resources to learn more.
Who is Protect Your Tap for?
Protect Your Tap is for everyone. Lead in drinking water is an important public health matter in communities across the country. In some cases, lead can enter drinking water through pipes that are called "lead service lines." Service lines are the sections of pipe used to connect a home to the main water line. Lead can leach from these pipes into tap water. Identifying and replacing lead service lines is an important way to reduce exposure to lead in drinking water. Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead can help you learn where your drinking water comes from, check the pipes that bring water into your home, reduce exposure to lead, and find resources about certified laboratories to get drinking water tested for lead.
Read a Case Study
NH Campaign to Share the Guide (pdf)
Protect Your Tap Outreach Toolkits
Each toolkit includes different types of electronic and printable materials to educate the public about lead in drinking water and promote the Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead online guide. Select one of the following toolkit categories or mix and match materials from each:
- Community Groups
Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead is for housing authorities and community organizations to help residents learn more about lead in drinking water. While providing safe affordable housing is a critical need, lead in drinking water can sometimes be overlooked. - Government
Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead is intended for use by state and municipal government officials such as water superintendents, public health officers, and building inspectors to help residents learn more about lead in drinking water. - Health
Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead is for doctors, school nurses, and community health providers to help patients learn more about lead in drinking water. Protecting children from exposure to lead is important to lifelong good health. Even low levels of lead in blood have been shown to have harmful, irreversible effects. Children six years old and younger are most susceptible to the effects of lead. - Utilities
Protect Your Tap: A Quick Check for Lead is for water utility companies to help customers learn more about lead in drinking water.
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Lead Exposure Resources
EPA's Lead Resources
- Learn about Lead
Find all types of information and resources on EPA's central lead page. - Protect Your Family from Exposures to Lead
Information about sources of lead exposure and how to reduce your exposure. - Lead in Drinking Water
Basic information about how lead gets into drinking water, health effects of lead exposure, and tips to reduce your exposure. Find factsheets, infographics, policy and guidance, and consumer confidence reports. - 3Ts for Reducing Lead in Drinking Water Toolkit
Provides tools for schools, child care facilities, states, and water systems to implement voluntary lead in drinking water testing programs. - Renovation, Repair, & Painting Program
EPA program that works with certified contractors who are trained by EPA-approved training providers to follow lead-safe renovation practices. Find tools, guides, checklists, reports, and more. . .
Lead Pipe / Service Line Resources
- Getting the Lead Out of Service Lines
Watch a short video about how two communities in New England are using creative ways to finance the removal of lead service lines. - Lead Service Line Replacement
Find EPA resources on lead service line replacement, including federal and non-federal funding sources, case studies, and research. - Lead Service Line Replacement Collaborative
The Lead Service Line Replacement (LSLR) Collaborative includes associations representing drinking water utilities and professionals, public health professionals, state and local government agencies, environmental groups, and other public interest organizations from across the country who share the goal of accelerating voluntary replacement of lead service lines.