Sipping From the Garden Hose? Think Again. With spring in full swing, gardeners across the country have been gearing up for the planting season, pulling out the hose and unearthing shovels and trowels. And while every experienced gardener knows that hoses and tools can trip up the unsuspecting lawnmower, there is evidence that they may pose risks to consumers as well. Last week the Ecology Center, a nonprofit environmental organization based in Ann Arbor, Mich., that reviews consumer products, released a study at the Web site HealthyStuff.org on potentially hazardous chemicals in gardening tools. The group tested nearly 200 gardening products, including hoses, gloves, kneeling pads and tools, for lead, cadmium, bromine, chlorine, phthalates and bisphenol A. Over all, they found that two-thirds of the products tested contained levels of one or more chemicals in excess of standards set for other consumer products. For example, 30 percent of all products tested contained lead exceeding the Consumer Product Safety Commission's standard of 100 parts per million for children's products. "Hoses and garden tools are obviously not classified as children's products," said Jeff Gearhart, who led the research for the Ecology Center. But kids are still going to be playing with them. I know I drank out of a hose all summer when I was growing up. What kid doesn't? To illustrate how chemicals can migrate from garden hoses into water, the research team left a section of garden hose filled with water out in the sun over multiple days. When the water was tested it was found to exceed federal standards for safe drinking water for several chemicals - including four times the standard considered safe for phthalates, 18 times that for lead and 20 times that for BPA. Unlike residential plumbing fixtures, which must comply with the Safe Drinking Water Act, the brass fittings on hoses are not regulated, even though 30 percent of those tested in the study were found to exceed safety limits for lead. Patty Davis, a spokeswoman for the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said that the commission would never recommend that any consumer drink from a garden hose. "The real health concern here is bacterial contamination," she said. Garden hoses sit outside and bake in the sun. Anything can get in them, and it's a perfect environment for all sorts of microbial communities. She offered a reminder that the leading cause by far of lead poisoning in the United States is still lead-based paints in older homes. "The most important step you can take to protect you and your family from lead is to remediate paint dating from before 1978," she said. And then there's the safety commission's list of recalled toys and jewelry for children, she said. "What we've found over the years is that it's very rare to be able to point at one product and say it's causing X problem," said Mr. Gearhart. What's much more common are many small sources that have a cumulative effect. In the gardening domain, she said, "the good news is there are safer options already available - polyurethane or natural rubber water hoses, non-PVC tools and work gloves." Here's a video from the HealthyStuff Web site that explains the study and offers some tips.