Is Nichrome Wire Hazardous?

Once people used to drink water from lead pipes. then they found lead is poisonous. Later people drank water from iron pipes, then we found iron is poisonous. Then we used PVC pipes and found plasticisers used in PVC leaches out affecting our health. Now there are reports that even aluminium leaching from vessels is hazardous as its accumulation in brain seem to cause(???) Alzeimers. How far these reports are truthful is anyone's guess. The food that we eat, the water we drink and air we breathe- all contain hazardous materials . So don't worry about nichrome wire in your teapot.

LOL!! How true!!

By the way, in hard water areas, after a year or so, the lead is covered......my parents house in the UK, built around 1910 had lead pipes, that my father replaced over time, all had a thick coating of calcium.....so were safe.

Now in soft water areas.........

As a child, I got lead poisoning from paint (different house, brand new at the time, the one before the 1910 house).

Lead poisoning, not funny!!! Blue turds!!!

Any substance can be harmful when administered rapidly in sufficiently high doses. Still, being concerned about the toxicity of iron from water pipes seems bizarre (the other substances are significantly more dangerous). Who started it ,when did it occur and how long did the 'iron water pipe hysteria' last?

I suspect that iron pipes, like lead pipes are only a problem with water sources that are low pH, or contain no sulfates or alkalinity. The Roman problem with lead was more than just water pipes - apparently lead in solution was the artificial sweetener of the day. (well at least for a couple of rounds).

Plasticizers in plastic pipes seem to mimic the steric shape of hormones in some cases, or rather PCB does. Obviously, pipes contaminated with any level of PCB would be a real problem - strange hormonal effects, chloracne, etc.

When you open a tap after many days, water flowing initially has lot of rust in it. I am not supporting the theory that iron pipes are hazardous. I only want to say anything in excess, even food we eat is hazardous. Nothing will happen in normal use. Our body is well designed to take care of any occasional over dose also.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_poisoning‎

www.uptodate.com/contents/acute-iron-poisoning‎

drlwilson.com/articles/IRON.htm‎

Good posts, they show that it happens very seldom nowadays.....

Trust me: there are places in New Mexico where one does not drink the well water/artesian spring water simply because it has low alkalinity, high iron, and high hardness. You will get Moctezuma's revenge in a big way. And yes, this water will overdose you will iron, not sure about other trace elements there.

I am sure that somewhere in the world there are rusty drinking water pipes, but generally, steel water pipe has a coating to stop rust. In hard water areas, this coating is eventually covered with calcium....so I guess its quite safe by then.

Rusty coloured water happens in certain areas and can be from dissolved iron (I am told) but is this exactly the same as from rusting water pipes? As this dissolved iron was considered healthy as far as I remember.....many must take iron medicine....I have no idea which types of iron are considered good or bad, I am not a chemist!! I am sure there is someone more knowledgeable here somewhere....

What I am (slowly) getting to is that rust/red coloured water may not always be from rusty piping......and may not be bad to drink whatever it is.....it might have nothing to do with iron either....

In the UK many years ago, particularly in soft water areas, the water left rust marks on sinks and baths even though it looked clean......

The material we commonly refer to as Nichrome is actually one of a great number of resistance alloys that include Silicon, Carbon,Cobalt, Iron, Manganese. Nickel, Copper, Aluminum, and Chromium. The nichrome alloy Nitrothal TE, for example, contains about 1% (10,000 ppmw) of manganese. These alloys are formulated to optimize their resistance properties, not to minimize their toxicity. So when you purchase a nichrome loop to heat water, I suggest it would be wise to consider the specific alloy you are selecting and its possible toxic effects.

Nevermind, I fixed the grid tie inverter so I will not be needing to make cups of tea for the sake of it. I also bought one of those 12v immersion heaters but it was crap and just broke. You just can't beat plain nichrome.