LATHAM, N.Y. — NSF International, which develops public health standards and certification programs to protect food, water, consumer products and the environment, is currently developing a new draft standard on emerging contaminants.
NSF 401: Drinking Water Treatment Units — Emerging Compounds/Incidental Contaminants, will establish requirements designed to reduce emerging compounds, including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, chemicals and endocrine disrupting compounds in water.
The standard will focus on claims being made for the reduction of 15 individual compounds including BPA, Meprobamate, Phenytoin, Atenolol, Carbamazepine, TCEP, TCPP, DEET, Metolachlor, Trimethoprim, Ibuprofen, Naproxen, Estrone, Linuron and Nonyl phenol.
Water Technology caught up with NSF International's Rick Andrew, director of global business development, water systems to find out why these contaminants were of immediate concern, what goes into creating a new NSF standard and how this standard will evolve as new contaminants of concern emerge.
"NSF standards currently in development actually cover 15 different, individual compounds which were selected based on having been detected in a source water or a drinking water supply somewhere,” said Andrew. “They were selected based on manufacturers having interest in testing their products to see if they can treat these compounds effectively. And they were also selected based on the capability of laboratories to analyze for those compounds."
Listen to the rest of our conversation with Andrew on our podcast page, here: https://www.watertechonline.com/podcasts.
