Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - November 2005
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New drinking water system removes pathogens – earns EPA status as a multi-barrier purifier
By Dave Krupinski
Two filtration companies
recently launched a drinking
water system certified as a
microbiological purifier for
residential, health care facilities and
light commercial applications.
The Purefecta™ Drinking Water
Purifier removes bacteria, viruses and
protozoa. This multi-barrier drinking
water system is available to consumers
and meets the stringent U.S. EPA
Guide Standard and Protocol for
Testing Microbiological Purifiers
(OPP Task Force Report, 1987). The
result is biopure (microbiologically
purified) water, the highest quality
drinking water available. Purefecta is
the first product from a collaboration
between Pall Corporation, a global
provider of filtration, separation and
purification technologies, and
Kinetico Incorporated, a water treatment
company.
Purefecta features a seven-stage,
multi-barrier process that offers more
certified contaminant removal than other
drinking water systems including filter
pitchers, countertop and faucet mounts,
and under the sink systems. It is certified
by the leading water quality product performance
agencies to remove greater
than 99.99999 percent of bacteria, greater
than 99.999 percent of protozoa and
greater than 99.99 percent of viruses
from water. These agencies, specifically
National Sanitation Foundation
International (NSF), Underwriters
Laboratory (UL), the Water Quality
Association (WQA) and BioVir
Laboratories, found that Purefecta meets
the EPA Guide Standard and Protocol for
virus removal and exceeds the EPA standard
for bacteria and protozoa removal.
Poliovirus, rotavirus, Cryptosporidium,
Giardia, and Klebsiella terigena are
among the long list of pathogens Purefecta
can remove. It is a multi-barrier drinking
water purifier available to consumers that
removes pathogens in addition to other
commonly found water contaminants
including toxic metals, such as lead, and
volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such
as chemicals and pesticides.
Unique seven-stage
protection process
Purefecta combines Kinetico’s
reverse osmosis (RO) technology with
Pall’s precise membrane technology
that filters out microbiological contaminants.
The membranes were originally
developed to remove bacteria and
viruses to serve the critical needs of
the medical and biopharmaceutical
industries for ultra pure water.
The combined technologies are
incorporated into an exclusive nonelectric,
seven-stage process. First, a
pre-filter reduces larger particles and
sediment as small as 1/16th the diameter
of a human hair. An RO membrane
removes heavy metals such as lead,
other compounds such as nitrates, and
cysts, including Cryptosporidium.
Contaminants are flushed to drain
while allowing water molecules to
pass. Then a 0.02 micron Pall virus filter
eliminates viruses that may be present.
Next, a non-corrosive self-circulating
tank safely stores the water until
needed. Upon demand, the water passes
from the tank through a carbon
block post-filter that removes any
remaining tastes, odours and volatile
organic compounds. Finally, a 0.2
micron Pall bacteria filter removes
bacteria that may be present.
Public concern about drinking
water quality and safety
Concerns over drinking water quality
have been on the rise during the
past decade. While municipal water
treatment has eliminated threats from
many waterborne illnesses of the past,
such as cholera and typhoid fever, outbreaks
of waterborne diseases still
occur. An estimated seven million people
become sick and more than 1,000
people die each year in the US from
disease-causing microbes in water.
According to the Centers for Disease
Control, the number of outbreaks of
waterborne illnesses, although currently
underreported, is increasing.
Even well operated, state-of-the-art
treatment plants cannot ensure that
drinking water is entirely free of
microbial pathogens. System failures
do occur and not all systems are functioning
at the level they should. A 1999
EPA report found that 55,000 US community water systems were in need of
significant investment to install,
upgrade or replace infrastructure to
ensure the provision of safe drinking
water to their 243 million customers.
Some municipalities currently rely
on water supplies without filtration or
disinfection. And new pathogens,
some of which are resistant to conventional
treatment processes, continue to
emerge. Even with optimum treatment,
contamination can also occur in the
water distribution system, leaving the
consumer vulnerable. And bottled
water, which is unregulated and varies
considerably, may not offer any more
safeguards against pathogens than tap
water.
Although healthy people can
become sick from waterborne
pathogens, people with weakened
immune systems are at the greatest
risk of serious and even fatal illness.
Anywhere from 20 to 25 percent of the
population in the U.S. and Canada is
considered immune compromised and
the number is increasing as our society
ages.
Current world events have also contributed
to new concerns about the
security of drinking water supplies.
Recent FBI warnings about bioterrorist
threats on our drinking water are
raising questions about what federal
and local actions are planned in the
event of such an attack. Currently,
there is no routine monitoring for suspect
agents and no treatment protocols
for municipalities to follow in the
event of a threat.
The market for home drinking
water systems is growing rapidly in
North America and worldwide. The
point-of-use water market is expected
to reach more than $1.4 billion by
2007, according to the latest report by
Frost and Sullivan.
Dave Krupinski is manager for
Kinetico Residential Systems.
For more information contact: 1-800-944 WATER
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