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May 2005
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Dare you drink from a garden hose?

Photo of a garden hose with a warning label below it.
WARNING A label like the one above signals that the hose contains lead.
We'd answer that question by saying it's OK to drink from a hose only if you know it was labeled safe on the package and if you flush it first. If you don't flush out the hose, the water standing inside may contain worrisome amounts of lead and other chemicals that leach from the hose itself. Many hoses are made of polyvinyl chloride, which uses lead as a stabilizer.

We recently tested hoses sold at national chains and on the Internet. Some had packaging indicating they were safe for drinking; others had warning labels. But some of the hoses weren't labeled either way.

The hoses labeled safe for drinking typically contained less lead in their construction than the others. In our tests, those hoses leached minuscule amounts of lead into water that had been standing in the hose for 20 hours or more. We measured concentrations well below 15 parts per billion, the level in drinking water at which the Environmental Protection Agency requires remedial action. In fact, tap water contained as much lead as some samples. (The time the water stands in the hose, water temperature and acidity all affect the amount of lead leaching.) Hoses containing the highest amounts of lead, only two of which carried a "do not drink" label, leached 10 to 100 times allowable lead levels in the first draw of standing water.

However, even extremely low levels of lead may cause health problems. A recent study reported in The New England Journal of Medicine suggests that lead levels in the blood even lower than the current definition of toxicity may adversely affect a child's IQ.

The bottom line. When you buy a hose, choose one labeled safe for drinking. If you use a hose whose package label you haven't seen, assume it's not safe for drinking. With any hose, flush it by letting the water run for a minute or so before you drink.