Consumers May Want to Consider POU Filters, WQA Says
Last week, the Water Quality Association (WQA) urged consumers to consider installing final contaminant barriers against chemicals in their drinking water.
The message was prompted by a New York Times report saying that 10 percent of Americans face dangerous drinking water.
The newspaper reported that:
- Ten percent of Americans "have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways."
- Wells are more likely than municipal water systems to contain contaminants.
- An estimated 19.5 million Americans "fall ill" every year to contaminated water.
Filtering systems in the home provide the highest technology available to treat drinking water, said Peter J. Censky, executive director of WQA. Less than 2 percent of all water consumed is ingested by humans, making these "point-of-use" systems the most cost-effective.
WQA provides Gold Seal certification for products that remove various contaminants. These products are tested according to independently developed standards of the American National Standards Institute.