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HOME TREATMENT DEVICES - MICROBIOLOGY OF POINT OF USE AND POINT OF ENTRY DEVICES
Citation:
Reasoner*, D J. HOME TREATMENT DEVICES - MICROBIOLOGY OF POINT OF USE AND POINT OF ENTRY DEVICES. Bitton, G. (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Environmental Microbiology. John Wiley & Sons Incorporated, New York, NY, , 1563-1575, (2002).
Description:
Consumer concerns over the quality of their drinking water have increased steadily over the past 15-20 years. This is primarily due to the perception of consumers, significantly influenced by news media reports, that contaminants (chemical and microbiological) in municipal drinking water make it unsafe for consumption. The occurrence of low levels of disinfection by-products resulting from the reaction of chlorine, or other water disinfectants, with organic compounds in the water to form compounds that may be carcinogenic, mutagenic or toxic has been demonstrated. Waterborne disease outbreaks caused by pathogenic bacteria, viruses and protozoa have occurred due to inadequate treatment, treatment process failures and post-treatment contamination of potable water. In addition, the aesthetic quality of tap water varies due to source water characteristics and residual disinfectant. Many consumers turn to bottled water or to commercially available water treatment devices that can be installed in their homes because they do not like the taste, odor, or appearnace of the tape water delivered to their homes. Thus point of use (POU) and point of entry (POE) treatment unit sales have been growing rapidly. Microbiological quality concerns related to POU-POE treatment generally involve the control of heterotrophic bacteria levels.This paper summarizes the basic processes that may be used by POU/POE devices and the contaminants they can remove.