In 1996, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revised the Safe Drinking Water Act, which resulted in significant changes to the material content requirements for many plumbing materials and faucets.
Effective August 6, 1998, all faucets and plumbing fixtures sold in the U.S. could not contain more than 8% lead. In addition, for faucets and other devices designed to dispense drinking water, federal law now requires these products to meet the lead leaching requirements of NSF/ANSI Standard 61.
Standard 61 establishes guidelines for determining whether contaminants or other impurities are imparted indirectly into drinking water from the product being tested. Any detected impurities must be below acceptable levels. Under Section 9 of this standard, faucets and other endpoint devices are tested to ensure they do not leach more than 5 ppb of lead into drinking water.
If you are interested in obtaining a list of the faucets that have been evaluated and certified by our organization, you can use our online product database to locate this information.
Plumbing products, including copper tubing and faucets, are listed on in our drinking water system components online database. Consumers can be assured that the products listed in this section of our website have been tested by the staff at NSF to ensure they meet the health effects requirements of the applicable section of Standard 61.
For further information on the EPA's Safe Drinking Water Act, you can visit the EPA's website at www.epa.gov or call their Safe Drinking Water Hotline at 1-800-426-4791.
