Pex plumbing linked to cancer?

OurHouse

I just finished repiping my entire house (myself) and most of the long runs are in pex. I was really feeling good, no more active galv, and I had done it all myself, and everything works nicely, and pressures are better than ever; Hell, I even added valves throughout the system to be able to isolate zones for future repairs, etc. However, now my husband spots the fine print on the Apollo fittings packages that they contain chemicals known to cause cancer and one fitting even says it's illegal to sell in California or Vermont (we're in Iowa, but if it's gonna kill a Californian, me thinks it would kill an Iowan, too.) So... anyone know anything about this? I'm so . I mean, I *just* did it... grrrr...

a_lost_shadow

As a friend of my likes to say. "Everything is known to cause cancer in white mice."

The fittings are easy to explain. Both California and Vermont require that all brass fittings used in potable water systems be certified to have less that 0.25% lead in them. There are processes for producing brass that can get the lead contend down to under 0.10%, but they cost more. Also the certification costs money. So either the fitting has more than 0.25% lead, or the company didn't feel like getting it certified that it's lines will always produce brass with less that 0.25% lead. Unfortunately, I have yet to find the specs on how much lead is allowed in brass for the rest of the country.

As for the known to cause cancer, welcome to the odd world of California where everything has that warning. I've seen that warning posted above dinnerware. I'm pretty sure it's simply a way of saying, bad things could happen to you if you decide to eat this product. A lot of the PEX research I've seen shows that it has equal or less leaching that other acceptable forms of pipes (such as PVC).

cjm94

Every thing causes cancer in california

joecaption

My wife just bought me a new wallet, I kid you not there a warning inside warning the material it's made of can cause cancer. It's a split cow hide wallet.
Look on some boxs of nails, it says the coating can cause cancer, well there goes my late night snack idea.

pjm30043

You know there is a reason why California is called the land of fruit and nuts. :P No offense to any Californians out there.

Bondo

Yabut that's cancer, Only if ya drink 60,000 gallons of water a day, for 75 years, that been sitting in that fitting for atleast 12 hours....

then, ya,... ya Might get cancer....

OurHouse

Thanks everyone. I need to explain this to my husband, who seems to think I should just redo everything in copper (just)

I think LIVING causes cancer, because the dead don't seem to complain about it. Even if we went for bottled water like a Sparkletts type thing, they're packing it in BPA and don't tell me those don't warm and therefore leach in the sun on the truck. So, yeah, I think we'll just stick to the "run the water a moment before you drink, and run it through a Brita filter." Ay ay ay... I have a bathroom remodel I have to finish in 4 days and he wants me to *just* redo all the plumbing I just did in pex, except of course the 10 feet or so of copper...

Bonzai

Those 18ga nails can be quite tasty although tend to get stuck between the teeth lol

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