NSF International has certified 56 products to the first American National Standard that validates the effectiveness of water treatment devices that are designed to reduce trace levels of emerging contaminants in drinking water.
The standard, NSF/ANSI 401: Drinking Water Treatment Units — Emerging Compounds/Incidental Contaminants, addresses the ability of a water treatment device to remove up to 15 contaminants from drinking water. Types of contaminants include some pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter medications, herbicides, pesticides and chemicals used in manufacturing such as bisphenol A (BPA).
The first manufacturers to achieve NSF/ANSI 401 certification for one or more of their water treatment devices include 3M Purification, Access Business Group, Amway China, Aquasana, Electrolux Home Products, Everpure, General Electric, Kaz USA, Kemflo/Filbur and Whirlpool.
Products covered in the standard include several types of point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) products such as faucet mount, under sink, counter top, plumbed-in, refrigerator, pour-through, mouth drawn and hand squeezed sports bottle type filtration systems, POU reverse osmosis systems and traditional filtration systems.
While not a public health issue, the contaminants covered in NSF/ANSI 401 have been detected in drinking water supplies at trace levels and can affect some consumers’ perception of drinking water quality. An independent survey conducted on behalf of NSF International indicated that 63 percent of Americans are concerned about pharmaceuticals and other contaminants in their drinking water.
The new standard sets requirements for water treatment and filtration devices that reduce up to 15 individual contaminants, which have been identified in published studies as occurring in drinking water.
Last month, the International Organization for Standardization published a water footprint standard to help businesses and other organizations measure their potential environmental impact of water use and pollution.