There's Consumer Protection For Water Filters and Water Purifiers

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For Water Filters and Water Purifiers

The NSF International is an independent, not-for-profit third-party standards development and product certification organization. This organization is responsible to the consumer user sector, the regulatory (governmental) sector and to the manufacturer sector. NSF International maintains a voluntary certification program for equipment to applicable ANSI/NSF consensus Standards. This program includes any equipment used in food preparation and storage, including drinking water systems.

NSF tests products as part of its certification program to assure that chemicals are not leached at levels above those established by the standard or allowed by Federal Regulations (ie: MCL's). Under Materials Guidelines, this includes all the product components (screws, neoprene seals, tubing, etc.). Under the Structural Guidelines, this includes ensuring that units will not explode, crack, disintegrate, etc. The Materials Guidelines and Structural Guidelines are actually minimum requirements of the standards that products must meet in order to be certified.

NSF International's drinking water Standards are recognized as American National Standards for point-of-use drinking water treatment devices, and their Certification program is recognized as the hallmark or premier certification program in North America. In fact, most states are going to NSF International ratings plus their own state testing which determine what individual manufacturers can claim for their filters sold within the state.

California is one of the toughest states to sell in because many filters do not qualify to sell in the state, based on outrageous performance claims that are unverifiable. Most reputable companies invest in the considerable expense of getting these ratings because they recognize the credibility granted them if their filter measures up. Therefore, they strive for as much documentation as possible.

NSF International has six standards for drinking water filtration devices, including Standards 42, 53, 58 (Reverse Osmosis Systems) and 55 (Ultraviolet Systems). The bulk of the filters are certified under the following standards:

Standard 42: Aesthetic effects

This rating covers taste, odor and chlorine removal and further divides the category by percent removal, i.e.

Class I: 75% or greater Chlorine removal

Class II: 50% - 74% Chlorine removal

Class III: 25% - 49% Chlorine removal

Standard 53: Health Effects

This category covers most every other pollutant, with many of them, like lead and asbestos, being extremely hard to remove due to size or chemical structure. The substances rated for are tested for individually with each test a separate expense:

Chemicals (VOC's, THM's)

Pesticides

Herbicides

Cysts (GIardia, Cryptosporidia)

Turbidity

Lead

Asbestos

Radon

The method in which the filters are tested is to test for greater than 99.9% reduction of a substance (such as lead, for instance) for twice the rated filter capacity. In other words, if a cartridge is rated for 500 gallons by NSF International, that means that it removed lead for one thousand gallons at 99.9% reduction level. In this manner, consumers are generously protected for almost any water situation, by over testing the unit and conservatively rating the expected performance.

Many consumers look to Consumer Reports for trusted performance ratings on different products. In the field of water filtration, CR is not nearly as rigorous in its testing as NSF International, either in its methodology or the range of contaminants tested for. In the past ten years, the CR labs have only done lead and chlorine comparisons on a relatively few filters so their findings are far from comprehensive.

NSF does not rate or compare one unit over any other. It simply certifies that the product bearing the Registered NSF Mark meets the minimum requirements of the applicable ANSI/NSF Standards. NSF also certifies that the manufacturer agrees to comply with written NSF policies governing the use of the NSF Mark and other certification requirements. The State of California accepts other testing results, but NSF International is a much more complete source for comparison and because of this, as of October 1992, all filters sold within the state of California, and other states as well, must display the filter's NSF International rating (if they have one) on the unit, the packaging and all literature related to the filter. Any violators of this regulation are prevented from selling their equipment in the state.