There are often fairly sensible reasons or good intent behind many of them. People don't normally drink hot water; it's not a great idea, as it has higher levels of dissolved solids and higher risk of contamination by organisms (like legionnaires). Meanwhile, lead helps make metals and solders more resilient to high temperatures and fatigue at low cost. Banning lead from the hot side could therefore decrease reliability and increase cost, for arguably little to no health benefit.
I don't have a vested interest in the lead industry, but it's pretty clearly not simple maleficence.
> People drink hot water all the time not to mention cooking, tea, instant coffee and more.
I always use cold water and then boil it in a kettle. Even in Europe with our copper pipes the heat will dissolve more crap apparently. It's always advised to do this.
> That's from water being stagnant for long periods of time.
Yeah stagnant under optimal bacterial growth temperatures like 30C. And it enters the body through the lungs, from vapors in the shower. Not drinking it doesn't prevent legionnaire disease.
In fact what does prevent it is heating the water significantly, like around 60C. And chlorinating. It's also why the water here in Spain it's almost undrinkable from all the chlorine here in summer. They just have to put that much in it to prevent outdoor pipes growing bacteria. Yet in summer the water is still hot and brown when I open the tap after it's been outside in the pipe all day. I drink a lot of bottled water, lol.
> Not only is this not true, but water is never going to go above boiling. Propane torches (used for soldering pipes) burns at 1,980C
Yeah lead solder actually melts at a much lower temperature. I still use it for that reason because lead free is a bitch to work with. I only solder micro electronics though.
I always use cold water and then boil it in a kettle.
That's great for you. This has nothing to do with how absurd the idea of using lead in 'hot pipes' would be.
Not drinking it doesn't prevent legionnaire disease.
I didn't say anything about drinking, I just said it comes from stagnant water.
I still use it for that reason because lead free is a bitch to work with. I only solder micro electronics though.
Lead free solder is very easy to work with when putting copper pipes together. The torch puts out a lot of heat and you don't have to worry about destroying anything near it (except for wood behind it). I can't imagine all the twisted logic it would take for someone to think using leaded solder in pipes is a good idea.
One time I sweated a joint about 1 foot away from an electrical line running inside a steel conduit. The ambient heat (plus, I guess, whatever load was on the wires) was enough to melt the jacketing and cause a short.
Actually, this is famously caused by having water that’s not hot enough. It became a problem in some countries when they advised lowering boiler temps to save energy.
I don't have a vested interest in the lead industry, but it's pretty clearly not simple maleficence.