Protection Against Waterborne Pathogens
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 U.S. 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 function at the level they should. A 1999 EPA report found that 55,000 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. This includes infants and young children, pregnant women, the elderly, people with chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes and kidney problems as well as those taking immunosuppressive therapies, such as cancer patients and organ transplant recipients. Anywhere from 20 to 25 percent of the population in the U.S. and Canada is considered immunocompromised, 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.
Kinetico’s Purefecta® Drinking Water Purifier removes bacteria, viruses and protozoa. It is the only multi-barrier drinking water system available to consumers that meets the stringent U.S. EPA Guide Standard and Protocol for Testing Microbiological Purifiers (OPP Task Force Report, 1987) to earn its exclusive designation as a purifier. The result is biopure (microbiologically purified) water, the highest quality drinking water available.
Purefecta features a seven-stage, multi-barrier process that offers more certified contaminant removal than any other drinking water system available 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 NSF International, Underwriters Laboratories (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 the only 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.
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