Jun 25 2008
How Does Your Garden Grow? Hopefully Not With a PVC Hose
Even if you try to grow organic produce in your garden, you could be tainting it with lead from your garden hose.
PVC is what’s typically used to make garden hoses, as well as the brass nozzles on hoses, and in producing PVC, lead is often added as a stabilizer.
The hot sun can make thing even worse because heat can cause hoses to leach even higher levels of lead. Experts recommend flushing the water out of a hose that’s been sitting before using it.
Or you can just avoid the issue altogether by using a special hose (like those commonly used by RV and boat owners) that don’t contain lead and are deemed safe for drinking water.
Thanks in part to this lawsuit, packaging for garden hoses should now indicate if they are safe for drinking. In addition, warning labels on any hoses that can cause exposure above the standard carry a prominent warning label reading, “Do not drink water from this hose. Wash hands after use.”
If you can’t find a drinking safe garden hose at a retailer near you, you can buy one online here. That way, your hard gardening work won’t get washed down the drain.
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gosh, now what are the kids gonna do? all the bottles and sippy cups were leaching the bad junk so i was sending them to drink out of the hose. this is really bad news.