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Behavior of Drinking Water Distribution Pipes Made of HDPE, AC, OLT 37, and OL37.1 in Contact with Water
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Old water pipes, whether made of asbestos-cement, steel, or plastic, can shed tiny particles like microplastics, metal fragments, and asbestos microfibers into your tap water, especially as they age over decades of use. While researchers found the water still met official safety standards, they warn that these accumulated micropollutants could build up in your body over years of drinking water, with health effects that may not show up until long after exposure. This suggests that upgrading aging water infrastructure isn't just about pipe durability, it could matter for long-term health too.
Drinking water is essential for humans; its quality determines the health and proper functioning of the body. In order to obtain drinking water in accordance with the legislation in force, the performance of the technology applied for water treatment and the infrastructure for transport and distribution to the consumer are equally important. Particular importance to this last aspect was given by the introduction of European Directive 2020/2184. Infrastructure can significantly influence water quality due to the fact that there are periods when water stagnates in the pipe and electro-corrosion processes, and salt deposits or degradation/corrosion of the pipes can occur, or periods when water circulates under pressure, when deposits but also particles from the pipes are mechanically detached and transported to the consumer. In this article, we aim to present the behavior of asbestos-cement pipes, AC, special steel for pipes OLT 37, galvanized steel, OLT 37.1, and high-density polyethylene, HDPE, in contact with drinking water. The study was conducted in Calarasi city, Calarasi county, Romania, where some of the old pipes were replaced. A comparative study of new pipes of the same type with pipes in use for more than 20 years, up to 46 years, was conducted, and at the same time the changes that the pipes (which have not yet been replaced) have on the quality of drinking water for street consumers were also analyzed. Following the analyses performed, it can be stated that the water quality is within the maximum permissible limits, but the micropollutants that appear can accumulate in the body (such as AC microfibers, microplastics, metallic zinc, zinc ions, iron ions, manganese, aluminum) with effects that can be evident after a long period of consumption through bioaccumulation.
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