Bent Westergård from Silkeborg is marketing a lead-free water faucet and simultaneously criticising the Danish “VA” (Water Supply and Drainage) certifications for not being good enough. In other countries, the problem with lead in their drinking water is taken much more seriously.

In Denmark, we are proud that we are one of the few countries in the world that can use our groundwater directly as drinking water. But what good is it for the drinking water to be clean if it is poisoned on its way through the water faucet with lead, nickel and chromium to an extent that far exceeds the maximum allowable values?

Lead in the brain
The injurious effects from lead ought to be causing all the alarm bells to be ringing, because it affects the development of the brain, particularly in children, and may bring about behavioural disturbances as well as violent behaviour. The time-honoured rule of letting water run for 30 seconds before one takes a drink still applies – but do we remember to do it? Children, in any event, do not and we adults certainly also forget it on occasion perhaps when we draw water for coffee or in our eagerness to conserve expensive drops of the resource.

Clean waterways
It was indignation concerning these conditions, which have been common knowledge in the industry for years, that moved Bent Westergård to sit down and create a water faucet in which the brass alloy contained neither lead nor nickel, and where the chromium coating is only deposited externally on the faucet, thus making the waterways inside the faucet completely clean.

Danish “VA” certification – an uncertain guarantee
All water faucets that are sold in Denmark must be VA-certified, which ought to serve as a guarantee that the content of, among other things, lead and cadmium do not exceed their maximum allowable values. In October of 2007, the program “Operation X” on the Danish television channel TV-2 examined Danish water faucets. A number of random samples showed that the content particularly of lead and nickel was far above the maximum allowable values, and that many of the water faucets that were being sold in DIY centres and shops were not VA-certified. In addition a number of questions can be raised as to the value of the Danish testing methodologies.

No responsibility
Bent Westergård explains that he has written about the problems concerned to a large number of municipalities and to politicians, who have environment and health as their areas of responsibility, but has by and large not received any reaction. “It is incomprehensible that the responsible authorities are taking the problem so lightly,” he says. “In particular, I do not understand why nothing is being done about it in nurseries, childcare facilities and kindergartens, because it affects small children to a particularly large degree, since their defence systems are of course far from fully developed.”

•          All water faucets today must be VA-certified in order to be lawfully sold in Denmark. The TV program “Operation X” revealed that a number of fixtures did not fulfil these requirements. And now, just over a year later nobody can still make heads or tails of the certification procedure!
•          Lead is injurious to the body, however it makes brass less expensive and easier to work with when the water faucet is manufactured. In order to call a water faucet lead-free, the measurable quantity of lead must be less than 0.005%, which is the limit for what can actually be measured. By way of comparison, it is acceptable in Denmark for the lead content of water faucets to be as high as 3.5%, or over 700 times higher!
•          It is especially out of regard for the environment in China, where the water faucets are produced, that we should avoid unnecessary chromium plating. However it is also out of regard for the Danish environment. Because, when the water faucet at some point in time becomes construction waste and must be melted down and reused, what we will then be facing is a brass product that has been contaminated with chromium.

Lead-free water faucets are sold directly, bypassing expensive intermediaries, via the Web shop www.Blyfri-vvs.dk