One in five New Yorkers may be drinking lead-contaminated water, report finds

Study identifies about 900,000 households with service lines definitely or possibly made of lead, a known neurotoxin

One in five New Yorkers may be drinking lead-contaminated water, a new report has found.

Roughly 900,000 households - or 21% of the city's residents - live in properties with lead or possible lead service lines, the pipes that provide city water to individual properties. Lead can leach into the water from the pipes as the water travels through them.