http://www.care2.com/greenliving/are-rusty-pipes-dangerous.html
Are Rusty Pipes Dangerous?
Q: My pipes are old and I sometimes see a bit of rust in the water. Is this dangerous to my health?
A: Rusty water is usually a problem with older, unlined cast-iron pipes. There are no known health hazards associated with rusty water except perhaps that its appearance and unpleasant taste prevents you from drinking as much water as you should.
Dr. Brent Ridge is the health expert for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia. You can call and ask him a question live every Tuesday at 2 p.m. Eastern on Sirius Satellite Radio, Channel 112 (1.866.675.6675). You can also follow along as he learns to grow his own food, raise goats, and make goat milk soap on his farm in upstate New York by visiting www.beekman1802.com.
Got a health question for Dr. Brent? E-mail him at drbrent@care2.com.
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Kabin
Konteyner
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Dr. Brent
Good answer. Sure am glad you're not my doctor!
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1) Good point, Matthew P. To go further, it's possible for the iron in the water to be a valuable addition to the person's input, e.g. for some vegans, men or women. And it's possible for the iron input to be risky, even for menstruating women. Safest is to have the drinker's blood iron lab tested. There are arguments about what the best such test(s) are; I prefer doing ferritin plus transferrin saturation. And there are some arguments about optimal levels for such, versus common reference ranges -- e.g. if copper and methylation status are very good, lower ferritin and transferrin saturation levels are usually tolerated well and give less likelihood of unwanted oxidation (e.g. cascading into heart disease and cancer).
2) There's speculation that such inorganic iron input can cause unwanted oxidation in the gut, e.g. decrease in antioxidant potential and e.g. cascading into inflammation and/or carcinogenesis. Same argument is seen about ingesting iron in organic (e.g. food) vs inorganic (e.g. cheap supplemental) forms.
3) Iron ingestion sometimes is constipating.
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Rust consists of iron oxide, which might be healthy for women, but not for men. If you ever look at the label on men's vitamins, they never include iron. Some doctors link elevated levels of blood iron to heart attacks in men.
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