Just one UK water company carries out more than 350,000 drinking water tests every year1. Ensuring drinking water is safe to consume is an essential, but time-consuming task.
Public and private organizations have an ethical and regulatory duty to cut bacterial and chemical contamination that can spread disease and damage health.
Laboratories need ways to increase productivity and produce high-quality, reproducible results for drinking water analysis.
Choosing the correct filter for your workflow can help you reach these goals.
A matter of public health
Drinking water regulations are some of the strictest in the world – and for good reason.
Contamination is linked to the transmission of diseases including cholera, diarrhoea, dysentery, hepatitis A, and typhoid. An estimated 829,000 people worldwide die every year after suffering diarrhoea because of unsafe drinking water, sanitation, and hand hygiene.2
What’s more, unsafe levels of chemicals and bacteria can lead to reproductive problems and neurological disorders.3
Elevated levels of lead can cause kidney and brain damage, with pregnant women and young children being most at risk.4
Streamlining the process
The techniques for water testing use advanced tools such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS), inductively coupled plasma (ICP), and spectrophotometry.
These sophisticated approaches still require manual sample preparation. That includes filtration, which can help maintain productivity and quality assurance.
When particulate matter is not properly removed from the sample, it can clog and damage equipment and components.
This reduces the lifespan of expensive equipment, leads to more down time, and increases maintenance costs.
Any visible particulate matter that is not removed from the sample prior to spectrophotometry decreases the reliability of the test and the reproducibility of results. This decreases your laboratory’s output and creates a need for expensive and avoidable re-tests.
Which filter?
Drinking water testing encompasses a wide variety of chemical and biological analyses. Laboratories need to match the right filter to the right sample preparation technique.
To find out which filter is right for you download our whitepaper: Filtering Out Inconsistencies
References
- Fast facts. (n.d.).
- Drinking water. (2022).
- Drinking water frequently asked questions (FAQs). (2020).
- Lead. (2021).