Qualitative and health-related evaluation of point-of-use water treatment equipment performance in three cities of Iran.

Abstract

BackgroundApplication of the point-of-use water treatment (POU-WT) systems has consistently increased during the last decade in Iran. In this study, the qualitative performances of reverse osmosis-based POU devices in selected cities of Iran were investigated.MethodsThis applied- descriptive study was conducted in three cities of Tehran, Rasht, and Ahvaz in 2016 (selected based on the level of POU devices sale index in three phases). After choosing the most popular five brands of six stages POU devices, 360 water sampling zones and POU consumer households of the selected cities were measured. Also, the awareness of the consumers about POU-WT systems selection and performance was investigated through a designed questionnaire.ResultsThe qualitative parameters in the three cities were acceptable (p < 0.05) for tap water (except for EC in Ahvaz), the output water were as follows: pH = 6.05–7.5, EC = 49.8–58.2 μs/cm, TOC = 0.01–0.23 mg/L and Nitrate = 0.52–4.5 mg/LNO3 (lower or within the range of regulatory limits), Total Hardness = 33–41.5 mg/L and Fluoride = 0.01–0.23 mg/L (which were lower than the admissible limit, with p < 0.05), HPC values were in the range of 543–676 CFU/mL, which exceeded the regulatory level. Results of ANOVA analysis showed significant differences between the selected cities. The results of the questionnaire survey showed that the dissatisfaction of tap water quality and health-related concerns were the two main reasons for household POU-WT systems; awareness levels of 64% of these households about the performances of their POU systems were weak. Also, social media were mostly used by POU-WT users for brand selected.ConclusionBased on the results of the tap-water quality application of POU-WT systems are not recommended in Tehran and Rasht, and regarding the outputs of these systems, side effects of softened water, lack of Fluoride and a remarkable increase of the number of bacteria should be considered. In Ahvaz, application of POU-WT systems can decrease the health-related problems and it is necessary to increase the access to read POU-WT efficiency information for the consumers.