Water purifiers lack purity: Study (Hindu 22 July 2010)

NEW DELHI: A study of leading storage water purifier brands available in the Capital has revealed that none of them adheres to international standards of providing clean drinking water.
Releasing the study, “Safety issues concerning storage water purifiers”, conducted by a non-government organisation, Healthy You Foundation, its founder trustee Bejon Misra said on Wednesday: “Though several tall claims are made by manufacturers on the purity and safety of water, we found that none of the leading brands of storage water purifiers has adopted international standards and they thus provide sub-standard drinking water to its consumers.''
The study highlighted the fact that the labels on the products do not mention the certified chemicals used to treat the water and how the levels of its presence can be monitored by users.
It noted that the literature distributed to the consumers at the time of sale doesn't carry the relevant information required for the consumers on health and safety related issues. “All the brands fall short of adequate disclosure requirements to enable consumers to make an informed choice and lack of stringent standards and regulations in the country to monitor public health and safety issues allows these companies to sell their products without checks,'' said Mr. Misra.
The study notes that the use of chemicals including chlorine in these purifiers should be carefully governed and regularly monitored to ensure that the dosage is administered under safe level. Also some other chemicals used in the cleaning process by these purifiers decompose themselves during the filtration and treatment of water and produce products which when combined with other routinely used material can be harmful to health.
Healthy You Foundation chairman S. Krishnan said: “The service providers are responsible to ensure that safe portable water is provided to the consumer. Also we recommend that a comprehensive mandatory labelling standard should be adopted by various water purifiers in India as health and safety of consumers cannot be compromised for commercial gains.''