This purifier claims to produce 100% pure water. They use chlorine. Chlorine, when taken in for a long period, is bad for health.
The 4 stage purification process.
Polisher
Removes chlorine and other contaminants to make water clear, odourless and great tasting.
They have claimed that they do remove chlorine from the water. Now, if this claim is false, it could be a health hazard - so, is this claim true?
Let me start off by saying it is very hard to determine what is fact and what is propaganda, since this is a water filter that competes with the biggest water filter company in India.
Court to Decide Water Purifier Battle
Water purifiers ineffective in preventing waterborne diseases, revealed through RTI
For those who don't know (as I didn't,)
The Pureit water filter consists of four parts that purify the water in four stages: a 'microfibre mesh', a 'compact carbon trap', a 'germkill processor' and a 'polisher', as branded by Hindustan Unilever. For the Pureit Marvella model, the microfibre mesh has been rebranded as a 'pleated filter', while the compact carbon trap has been rebranded as an 'activated carbon filter', along with a prefix of 'unique'. The microfibre mesh functions as a sieve, filtering out visible dirt. The carbon trap removes parasites and pesticides. The processor is a tablet consisting of chlorine. This stage removes bacteria and viruses. The polisher improves taste and clarity of water and removes the residual form of chlorine from the water. These four parts are collectively branded the germkill kit or the battery.
This battery needs continual replacing, as indicated by a germkill battery indicator visible on the front of the device. Pureit also features an 'auto switch off' mechanism whereby the filter prevents the flow of water following the consumption of the germkill kit. This kit itself comes in various models. The model of the germkill kit determines how much water it can purify before the kit needs replacing.
The germkill kit is designed to work at 25° C in moderately humid conditions. The volume specified by the germkill battery assumes these conditions. The germkill kit has an expiry date of three years from the date of packaging. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pureit
While according to Pureit,
The first batch of water that gets purified in your new Pureit, or from a new 'Germkill Kit™', should be drained away when it collects in the transparent chamber. This batch of water may have a distinctive taste and needs to be drained out by opening the tap. It should be noted that even though the first batch of water may have a distinctive taste, it is completely safe, even if accidentally ingested. Once you drain away the first batch, you will get pure and great tasting water in subsequent batches. http://www.pureitwater.com/IN/faqs#ans19
This would suggest that at least some chlorine gets through on a new system or a new 'Germkill Kit' (ie. chlorine tablet.) However I cannot seem to find any factual information to support claims that they don't remove 100% of the chlorine from the water, after the initial use. This doesn't mean that they truly do, but since they have had samples of there water tested by numerous labs around the world (a result of court cases and competitive company attacks,) if they didn't in fact remove 100% of the chlorine you would think there would be a large amount of evidence showing this.
Their 'polisher' is a activated carbon filter, and activated carbon is very good at removing chlorine, and it is entirely possible for a activated carbon filter to remove 100% of chlorine from water. Most remove between 96% to 100% with the average at 99%.
HUL claims Pureit does the following:
They also claim that it has been tested by the following institutions:
http://www.pureitwater.com/IN/certification
Virological evaluation lab test results, Pureit is Unit 8 (Chlorine levels not tested.)
So in conclusion, if you exclude the first batch of water produced, as the company says to do, it does seem like this unit filters out very close if not all of the chlorine it introduces in the stage before the polisher. It seems it's virus filtering ability is the most serious potential flaw in the unit, as this is the majority of the articles I read focused on.
Sorry if this wasn't very helpful, it isn't easy finding much unbiased information on the subject.
Their 'polisher' is a activated carbon filter Evidence for this outside wikipedia?
Commented
Jun 14, 2012 at 13:53
I didn't see any claim for 100% pure water, as your original post indicates. Nevertheless, they clearly state that it achieves purity "comparable to boiling water." (1, 2)
The product claims to be EPA certified, (4) so it must comply with the safety levels for disinfectants, including chlorine (5).
Nevertheless, you could contact the EPA concerning the product, or even ask Pureit for official stats concerning chlorine ppm levels and whether they are NSF 60 certified, (3) And, you can always send a sample to a lab to check it for yourself. That's the only way to be sure, except from official communication with the NSF/EPA of course.
References:
