Piping in Perspective:
Selecting Pipe for Plumbing in Buildings

An Executive Summary is available for this article.

Indoor plumbing is closely associated with advanced western civilizations such as Rome as well as withmodern industrial economies. Bringing clean and reliable supplies of freshwater into homes and workplaces and safely transporting wastewater from buildings to treatment facilities have been credited with taming outbreaks of infectious disease that remain tragically commonplace in many parts of the world. The use of lead in pipes and pipe solder—the word plumbing derives from the Latin word for lead, plumbum—made many advances in plumbing possible but also illustrates the potential downsides of choosing the wrong material. Some historians credit lead poisoning from plumbing and dishware with contributing to the fall of Rome.
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