[_Adam]

My pipes are all copper, and the hot water contains a non trivial amount of lead (from the solder used to join the pipes). I had it tested - around 20 ppb.

We don't drink or cook with the hot water, but in theory if the plumbing was PEX we could.

[Der_Einzige]

What year was your house built? I really hope this is not a risk on things built after 2000 (or 1980?)

[Spooky23]

Lead flux went away like 45 years ago. But sometimes galvanized pipe has some amount of lead in the zinc coating, and a mixed cooper/galvanized installation can accelerate corrosion.

Post-Flint, lead is the new asbestos. Because the standard is zero tolerance, there’s alot of noise on the topic.

PEX is great, but I’d personally always go for cooper if I could afford it. We tend to learn new things about plastic and risks over time.

[kube-system]

From 1986-2011 the EPA/congress defined "lead free" pipes as containing no more than 8% lead.

In 1996, they banned plumbing that is not "lead free" from being sold.

In 2011, the "lead free" definition was strengthened to a weighted average of 0.25%.

[RetpolineDrama]

For new construction the ideal is solderless copper. You use pure copper pipes + ProPress. It's fast and the cleanest you can get outside of exotic glass plumbing.