We're pretty lucky to be living in a so-called "first world" country. Because we do, we can take lots of things for granted that people on other parts of the globe would consider great luxuries.

    Clean drinking water right out of a tap connected to a modern plumbing system would be one of those things.

    A recent World Health Organization report entitled, "Combating Waterborne Disease at the Household Level" indicates that some 1.1 billion people in the world, "lack access to an 'improved' drinking water supply..." and that 1.8 million people die each year from diarrheal diseases caused by contaminated water.

  The report further highlights point-of-use technology as a key element in the struggle against waterborne diseases throughout the world. "Point of Use" technology is typically used to treat water in batches and deliver it to a single tap, such as a kitchen sink faucet or an auxiliary faucet mounted next to the kitchen sink. "Point of Entry" devices and technology, on the other hand, typically treat most of the water entering a residence.

    The Water Quality Association, a Lisle, Ill.-based, not-for-profit international trade association representing the residential, commercial, industrial, and small community water treatment industry, said its recent WQA Aquatech USA show in Orlando used point-of-use technology as a final barrier as a major theme.

    "The WHO report reaffirms something we have seen in other studies," said WQA executive director Peter Censky. "Point-of-use technologies can serve as a final barrier to waterborne diseases as well as environmental contaminants that enter through the water supply."

    Now, it's a pretty far stretch to think any of your customers will be at risk of contracting life-threatening waterborne disease simply by using tap water supplied by their water districts or wells. But there are still some concerns your customers may want you to help them overcome.

Pentair Water's PENTEK FreshPoint is a point-of-entry device that uses hollow fiber membranes to filter extremely fine particulates from water. Photo courtesy of Pentair Water/PENTEK/American Plumber.

Terry Heckman, president of the Pacific Water Quality Association, a Tustin, Calif.-based non-profit trade organization whose members are professionals providing water quality improvement services and equipment throughout California, said the group is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. He also observed that water quality issues will vary from place to place in our Western region.

    "If it's regular city water, people have concerns about chlorine, taste and odor and, perhaps, hardness," Heckman said. "Installing water softeners and point-of-use filters-or maybe a reverse osmosis unit or a carbon filter-is still very popular. Well water concerns could be very different. Other than aesthetics, there could be questions about the potability of the water. That's when you get into ultra filtration or disinfection. Concerns are across the board in the West. Obviously, nitrates are still an ongoing issue from the standpoint that people have their well water tested and they find out they may have higher than acceptable levels of nitrate. That will have to be reconciled or treated and that's what our industry does."

    Other major concerns, if you could call them that, with our water boil down to aesthetics-three things that can put people off: hardness, smell and taste. Plumbers can play a role in addressing those issues for consumers.

    "Plumbers do that kind of work to some extent but they're not the majority of the market when it comes to those who install water treatment equipment," Heckman said. "Most of that is done by a professional water treater or a water dealer, whether that's a national company like a Culligan or an independent. A lot of plumbers feel they don't want to get involved with water treatment devices. In some cases installing water treatment requires a test of some some kind, a sample being taken and analysis being done."<p>

But even relatively rudimentary test kits like the type commonly carried on plumbers' service trucks can go a long way toward alleviating customers' concerns about water, Heckman said: "Those are reliable, but it depends on what you're testing for-hardness and iron can be tested very easily. It all depends on the customer's concerns." 

    Kurt Kaiser is a product manager for Pentair Filtration, Inc., the Sheboygan, Wis., supplier of filtration products and reverse osmosis units. PENTEK and American Plumber are brands marketed by the company, with American Plumber exclusive to plumbing wholesalers. He said that Pentair Water, the parent company, also owns the Everpure filtration brand.

    "PENTEK recently debuted a new product called FreshPoint at the Water Quality Association show in March," Kaiser said. "FreshPoint is a  point-of-entry device that uses hollow fiber membrane technology to filter extremely fine particulates-all the way down to about 25 nanometers-from water.”

    That's pretty serious filtration. And plumbers are uniquely positioned in the chain to be able to refer their customers to these types of devices, according to Major Avignon, president of Water, Inc., the Carson, Calif., supplier and marketer of both point-of-use and point-of-entry water filtration devices, reverse osmosis units and water softeners.

Everpure's H-1200 Drinking Water System is the company's most powerful system, capable of reducing the levels of harmful contaminants and carcinogens such as MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether). Photo courtesy of Everpure.

"Plumbing plays a role in it because of the standards that need to be followed in regards to how a house is plumbed," Avignon said. "The plumber is in a position to offer suggestions to the end user as to how to improve upon the quality of the water they're getting from the municipality.  The water there is required by the Safe Drinking Water Act to be safe to drink, but that doesn't mean you'll like the taste of it."

    It also doesn't mean consumers will be happy with the level of minerals that are in the water for utility purposes like washing clothes, taking a bath or washing dishes. Hard water has a negative impact on appliances and, in the laundry, you have to add more soap to overcome it.

    "All of that is part of what the plumber can offer," Avignon said. "They pretty much know whether they're in an area that has hard water and, if they don't, they can run tests to show the consumer the content of the water and offer solutions. Those could be water softeners or whole-house filtration or what have you."

    On the point-of-use side, Avignon said Water Inc., has been marketing the Everpure brand for close to 30 years: "We've taken and added to the POU filters that Everpure has and matched them up with an ultraviolet light filtration system," Avignon said. "That is a treatment method that makes the water safer if it's questionable, i.e. if a person has a second home in Mexico or something and they want to have a little extra something to make sure their water is safe. UV is one technology that can be used quite effectively."

    He said this device, the Water Inc. UV Pack, works in the system with the EverHot and the EverCold and the rest of the under-sink components.

    "We've been promoting it a little bit more over the past year, but we've had it for a couple of years," he said, adding that company's HousePure units are what's new on the point-of-entry side of the water system.

    "People are becoming more interested in treating all of the water coming into their house, whether it's with a water softener and/or a filter," Avignon said. "Within the past year we have brought out a point-of-entry water filtration system called the HousePure. It removes particulate matter and chlorine from the water. It also addresses some of the hard minerals in the water by using Kinetic Degradation Fluxion, which is another filter medium that is quite popular."

    KDF media are high-purity copper-zinc formulations used in pretreatment, primary treatment, and wastewater applications. KDF media supplement or replace existing technologies to dramatically extend system life, reduce heavy metals, microorganisms and scale, lower total cost, and decrease maintenance.

    Everpure's H-1200 Drinking Water System is, according to director of residential marketing Eleni Yianas, the company's most powerful system, capable of reducing the levels of harmful contaminants and carcinogens such as MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether).

    "The H-1200 uses a dual-stage, dual-cartridge filtration system to provide unparalleled contaminant reduction and an industry-leading filtering surface area," Yianas said. "The exclusive Micro-Pure filtering media removes particles one-half micron (1/50,000 inch) and larger in size, and a dense granular activated carbon media filters out MTBE and chloramine taste and odor."

    Nature's Miracle supplies the Nature's Miracle Water Conditioning System from to dealers throughout the U.S. and Canada. Company spokesman David Stamat said  the system removes more than 98 percent  of chlorine from water, and the Clear2Clean Tri-Filtration Process uses granular activated carbon and quartz to filter the water, along with KDF media for good measure.

    "Absolutely no one is more qualified to advise a client on the best way to treat the water in their home or building than a professional plumber," Stamat said. "For decades, plumbers have yielded this important part of their expertise to water softener dealers who rely in most cases on in-home sales 'closers' to sell customers their particular brand of equipment based purely on their profit and commission structure. Little or no regard is given to the customers' needs or requirements.  The professional plumber educates himself and his staff on a variety of water treatment alternatives like Nature's Miracle; and turns every service call into an opportunity.  Pointing out problems and suggested solutions that the customer may not have even noticed should be a routine part of every customer walk-through after a service call."