Chemical based purifiers not all that safe

Gulping down ‘purified’ water may not be all that safe for your health.

A study has found that most chemical based water purifiers in India do not comply with the required safety standards. The study, commissioned by Healthy You Foundation, looked at the health and safety issues concerning storage water purifiers.

“Tall claims are made by the manufacturers on the purity and safety of the drinking water dispensed by their products,” Bejon Misra from the foundation said.

The consumers take such claims - especially by the branded products - at face value. But there is no mechanism to verify such claims or to ensure that the manufacturers adhere to safety regulations.

The NGO analyzed all major brands of water purifiers being sold in India.

It found that literature given to consumers at the time of sale does not carry all the relevant information related to health and safety aspects. “Consumers are not told about the chemicals used in the purifier and how the level of these chemicals can be monitored,” Misra, who led the study, said.

“In one of the products that uses an iodine based resin for purifying water, it is not known whether the resin is approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA),” he said.

Another water purifier is marketed with a claim that it meets the stringent norms set by the EPA. “But the chemical used in the purifier - trichloroisocyanuric acid or TCCA - actually contravenes the EPA regulations,” Misra said.

“TCCA is used worldwide to sanitize swimming pools. It has not been approved by the EPA for long- term usage as a drinking water disinfectant in a household water purifier,” he said.

According to him, TCCA decomposes in water to release free chlorine and cyanuric acid which, when combined with a chemical called melamine released from common household utensils and cutlery, can form substances that increase the risk of kidney failure.

Another product, which does not use chemicals, claims to produce 100 per cent pure water. “The claim is wrong as the purifier removes only bacteria and not virus,” the study says.

While ultraviolet (UV) and reverse osmosis (RO) are the safest technologies used in domestic water purification, these are high- end products consuming electricity.