Potential Effectiveness of Point-of-Use Filtration to Address Risks to Drinking Water in the United States.

Potential Effectiveness of Point-of-Use Filtration to Address Risks to Drinking Water in the United States. Environ Health Insights. 2017;11:1178630217746997 Authors: Brown KW, Gessesse B, Butler LJ, MacIntosh DL Abstract Numerous contemporary incidents demonstrate that conventional control strategies for municipal tap water have limited ability to mitigate exposures to chemicals whose sources are within distribution systems, such as lead, and chemicals that are not removed by standard treatment technologies, such as perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)/perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS). In these situations, point-of-use (POU) controls may be effective in mitigating exposures and managing health risks of chemicals in drinking water, but their potential utility has not been extensively examined. As an initial effort to fill this information gap, we conducted a critical review and analysis of the existing literature and data on the effectiveness of POU drinking water treatment technologies for reducing chemical contaminants commonly found in tap water in the United States. We found that many types of water treatment devices available to consumers in the United States have undergone laboratory testing and often certification for removal of chemical contaminants in tap water, but in most cases their efficacy in actual use has yet to be well characterized. In addition, the few studies of POU devices while "in use" focus on traditional contamin...
Source: Environmental Health Insights - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Environ Health Insights Source Type: research