Safety water marks
establishes product safety and performance requirements for
microbiological water purifiers. Protocol P231: Microbiological
Water Purifiers is based on recommendations from the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Poor quality drinking water is still a problem in the US. In 1999 and 2000, there were a total of 39 outbreaks involving drinking water in 25 states, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That is more than double the 17 outbreaks reported in 1997-98.
The protocol is designed to test the capacity of a purifier to treat a contaminated public water supply or for emergency situations and confirm a product's ability to reduce several forms of micro-organisms from drinking water, including bacteria, viruses such as rotavirus and protozoan cysts, such as Cryptosporidium and Giardia.
NSF is currently implementing a national brand awareness campaign, Live safer, which aims to help consumers understand the importance of the NSF Mark. Manufacturers such as Kinetico are also becoming aware of the importance of the scheme.
"Many products manufactured by Kinetico bear the NSF Mark as they are already certified against NSF/ANSI Drinking Water Standards 42, 44, 53, 58 and 61," said Tom Bruursema, general manager, drinking water treatment units.
"By receiving certification to Protocol P231, Kinetico continues to set high standards in product quality and performance for the point-of-use and point-of-entry drinking water treatment industry."
NSF International is a not-for-profit, non-governmental organisation. It provides public health and safety risk management solutions in the areas of food, water, indoor air and the environment.
