The World Health Organization estimates 240 million people are exposed to unsafe toxic lead in their drinking water.

In the United States, a lot of it has to do with lead pipes that pose a significant health risk. But new technology will make it easier to test the drinking water.

Flint, Michigan made headlines when lead levels in children doubled, but they are not the only one's.

Now, high lead levels have been found in tap water in Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Milwaukee, Newark, New York, Pittsburgh and Washington D.C.

A national resources defense council analysis found 56 percent of the U.S. population is drinking from water systems with detectable levels of lead.

"Once they get into humans, they sort of accumulate over time," MIT Material Scientist Jia Xu Brian Sia said.

Current EPA regulations require drinking water to contain no more than 15 parts per billion of lead.

"The right amount is literally zero," MIT Research Assistant Luigi Ranno said.

But current testing is costly, uses large equipment and takes days to get results.

Now a new team at MIT have developed a new system using a simple chip-based detector that uses light to detect lead.

"Rather than using electrons or electricity to transmit information, we use light," Ranno said.

By using photonic chips, in less than five minutes, the new system can detect levels as low as one part per billion.

The system is portable, inexpensive and highly accurate and they plan to take it from this lab to homes within two years, hoping to save lives around the world.

"That's why we are doing it. That's why we're doing it," Sia said.

Too much lead can affect brain development in children, cause birth defects, can cause damage to the brain and kidneys and can interfere with the production of red blood cells that carry oxygen to all parts of the body. Once it is in the body, lead can be stored in bones for years.

The MIT technology can not only detect lead, but can also be adapted to detect cadmium, copper, lithium, barium, cesium and radium.