§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will update to the end of March the table
296Wan undesirable level. This form of contamination declines rapidly, and after six months of normal use contamination of cold tap water normally becomes negligible.
The WRC studies were mainly of institutional buildings or undertaken in the laboratory. A later study of many thousands of samples taken from domestic kitchen taps as part of the survey of lead in water, has shown that, except where the pipes themselves are of lead, the levels of lead in water are very low or undetectable.
On the evidence available to date, no action is warranted, but further studies will be undertaken and the matter will be kept under review.