title: Lead and copper in drinking water fountains--information for physicians.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Lead and copper are potentially toxic metals. The objective of our work was to test the water from the drinking fountains of a large public access office complex in southwest Houston, Texas, for the presence of lead, copper, and microbiologic contamination. The data for the water fountains were compared with what we found in the local municipal drinking water supplies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Samples were collected as the first draw at the beginning of the work week. These samples were acidified to prevent the precipitation of heavy metals and analyzed using United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) approved procedures and quality control.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Traces of lead were detected in 37.5% and copper in 100% of the tested water fountains. In two buildings, concentrations in some fountains exceeded the USEPA action level for lead (by up to 12-fold) and for copper (by up to 3.9 fold). One sample was positive for total coliform and Escherichia coli bacteria. Comparison with samples from the local municipal drinking water supplies indicated that both metals and bacteria were the result of secondary contamination at the water fountain sites.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study showed that drinking water fountains can be an unexpected and unappreciated source of intake of metal and bacterial contaminants.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston 77030, USA. icech@uth.tmc.edu
authors.forename: Irina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cech
authors.forename: Michael H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Smolensky
authors.forename: Masoud
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Afshar
authors.forename: Gregory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Broyles
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Barczyk
authors.forename: Keith
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Burau
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Emery
mesh_terms: D003300:Copper / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D007854:Lead / Q000032:analysis*; D010820:Physicians; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D014481:United States; D014484:United States Environmental Protection Agency; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000592:standards; D014881:Water Supply / Q000032:analysis* / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D014867:Water; D007854:Lead; D003300:Copper