Reports abound across the Internet telling of how everything from lead, arsenic and chromium-6 to radium and pharmaceutical waste has been found in drinking water. Still other reports detail how ingesting these contaminants can have immediate and long-term effects on individual health. [Note: Ad or content links featured on this page are not necessarily affiliated with WQA and should not be considered a recommendation or endorsement by WQA.]
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While these stories are not meant to serve as scare tactics, they do demonstrate that when it comes to tap water, the words of Vince Lombardi that “the best defense is a good offense” ring true. The best protection for drinking water is a good offense in the form of a water filtration system.
“The broader reason consumers tend to buy these products is they just don’t like the taste of their water. But when you get into legitimate fears and concerns about water quality these water filtration systems offer added protection,” says Peter Censky, executive director of the Water Quality Association (WQA).
But before investing in a home water purification system, Pauli Undesser, WQA director of regulatory and technical affairs, recommends homeowners obtain a water quality test. She explains that while municipalities perform water quality testing annually to comply with EPA regulations, these tests only prove water purity as it leaves a treatment facility.
“While residuals of chlorine and things like that are in the treated water to control microbial growth, there are many points where contaminants can be added to the water after it leaves the treatment facility,” she explains. “It is at the point of consumption where water testing and final treatment should be done.”
WQA offers assistance through its Web site to help consumers diagnose their water and locate an accredited laboratory to perform water testing. These tests, which look for metals, organic matter, bacteria and more, help homeowners target problem areas within their tap water and identify the type of water filtration system that would best address the problem.
Once contaminants are known, homeowners can select the appropriate filtration system. WQA provides Gold Seal certification for products that remove a variety of contaminants. Products with Gold Seal certification have undergone intense scrutiny that includes:
- Performance testing for each contaminant the product claims to remove;
- Quality assurance testing at manufacturing sites to ensure product quality remains consistent; and
- Testing of product materials to ensure they do not add contaminants to the water over time.
In addition, companies must recertify Gold Seal products annually for material safety and every five years for drinking units.
Homeowners can sift through the approximately 3,000 Gold Seal-certified products listed on the WQA site (http://www.wqa.org/) to find an appropriate filtering system. They may search by the contaminant they seek to remove, or they can search by product type, for instance a pitcher-based system or faucet-mounted system or a reverse osmosis system. The Web site provides a list of products falling into the search criteria. From this list, consumers may click on a link that enables them to purchase products directly from the manufacturer online or perform another search to locate a distributor in their area.
To help consumers find a water professional to install filtration units, WQA provides a list of the 1,600 U.S. water specialists on its Web site. Some of these specialists have gone through a certification program that includes tracks on chemistry, purification technologies and ethics.
WQA’s Web site http://www.wqa.org recently received a facelift to simplify these types of searches. This site will launch in mid to late-September and will be very focused on consumer concerns, says Undesser.
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