We have not done this in a while, but below you will find the most recent specially priced sale items offered by National Safety Products, an online distributor of products used around the World. You can find water testing kits, water testing meters, fire/smoke safety equipment, light meters, flood/water alarms, heat index monitors, electrical testers, combustion analyzers and a whole host of other very useful tools for inspecting the safety, integrity and quality of many different things on their site: TestProducts.Com.
Fresh & New Articles
Paragon Rain Shower Head With 10,000 Gallon KDF Filter
Some people believe they have to sacrifice creature comforts such as a ‘cool’ showerhead that gives the sensation of standing in the rain if they want to install a shower filter that will reduce chlorine taste, chlorine odor and water harness. Those people clearly have not done their research!
After only a short web search we located a rain simulating showerhead manufactured by Paragon Water that has a built-in (replaceable) filter good for 10,000 gallons of shower water.
The filter uses a mixture of KDF and proprietary media to filter out impurities in the water. KDF stands for ‘Kinetic Degradation Fluxion’ and contains a high-purity copper-zinc formulation which uses a chemical process known as redox (oxidation/reduction) to reduce chlorine, lead, mercury, iron, and hydrogen sulfide levels in water.
For folks who may have other water quality issues, health officials and water professionals suggest using KDF shower or other point-of-use KDF filters in conjunction with other water purification methods since KDF filters alone will not remove potentially harmful contaminants such as bacteria, viruses, fluoride, and nitrates.
Ida’s Iron: Low Range Iron Test Strips (0.005 to 50 ppm)
We recently learned that Filter Water, an online distributor of drinking water quality improvement and water testing products, has expanded the number of SenSafe Test Kits to include Ida’s Iron, a dual range test strip that can detect ferrous iron levels as low as 0.005 ppm and as high as 50 ppm in under a minute.
Ida’s Iron specifically reacts with (ferrous) dissolved iron (in the +2 state) without interference from other heavy metals such as copper, silver, mercury, lead or chromium.
For applications where fast, accurate field testing for low levels of Fe+2 matters, Ida’s Iron provides a solid solution and allows you to say, “goodbye” to time-consuming wet-chemical kits that may require specialized training or equipment.
Features of Ida’s Iron include low detection range, easy testing procedures, test times under one minute, no need for glassware, and low test reagent concentrations.
Below you will see a sample of the Ida’s Iron color chart and label:
Label & Color Chart for Ida’s Iron
Ida’s Iron Check Water Test Specifications:
- Sensitivity: 0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.03, 0.06, 0.1, 0.3, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0, 10, 20, 50 ppm (mg/L)
- Test time: 45 seconds
- 25 test strips in a package
Note: To test for total iron, you will want to use a test kit such as the Visual Iron Test Kit which detects both ferrous iron and ferric iron.
Radon a Suspect in Florida Tumor and Cancer Cases
No one likes to hear the words ‘cancer’ or ‘tumor’… especially when discussing the health of children. Unfortunately for the residents of a Florida community, those words and children have gone together way too often.
Health officials now suspect that elevated levels of radon in the area’s drinking water may have played a part in causing at least a dozen cases of brain cancer or brain tumors and have started testing water from area wells, interviewing residents, and conducting in-depth environmental testing.
THE ACREAGE — Health officials will roll out more environmental tests to determine whether a common factor — radon — could be the cause of a suspected cancer cluster in The Acreage.
The Palm Beach County Health Department plans to screen for the radioactive gas in the homes of a dozen families whose children were diagnosed with brain tumors or brain cancer in recent years.
…
Investigators would complete the radon tests within the next few weeks, after health officials wrap up a month of exhaustive interviews with families of the dozen Acreage children who were diagnosed with brain tumors or brain cancer from 1993 to 2008.
Radium produces radon — a radioactive gas, known to cause lung cancer — when it decays in rocks, soil and water. If elevated levels of radon are found in a home, that could indicate that sources of excessive radiation exist.
Based on samples they took randomly from 50 Acreage homes last year, state environmental officials concluded that some homes in The Acreage have wells with elevated levels of radium and other radioactive substances, which could be from natural causes. ( source )
Below you will find links to other articles on the topic of radon in the air, radon in the water, ways to test for radon and ways to get rid of radon:
Test Kit for Toxic Ammonia in Fresh, Salt and Brackish Water
Every once in a while we get a request for information related to testing pond water and aquarium water. Today we bring news of a product, AquariaTest™ Ammonia, that makes testing the ammonia levels in pond and aquarium water very easy.
Ammonia Aquarium and Pond test strips provide a water quality testing alternative to older testing methods which required the use of chemicals in liquid, powder, and/or tablet form. Ammonia AquariaTest™ also shortens testing times and makes it easy for anyone, novice or expert, to test the ammonia levels in their water.
As an added feature, the AquariaTest™ Ammonia will also work in salt (or brackish) water*.
How to test for ammonia in fresh water:
- Using supplied pipette, fill one of the supplied vials half full (3 ml) with water.
- Cap vial and shake for 30 seconds
- Remove cap and dip one test strip for 30 seconds with back and forth motion
- Remove the strip and match to the closest color on a chart
AquariaTest™ Ammonia Test Specifics:
- Ammonia Detection Range: 0, 0.2, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0
- Test Time: 1 minute
- Tests per Kit: 25 test strips
* — Instructions for testing ammonia levels in brackish and salt water included in the test kit.
Fecal Bacteria From the Soda Fountain?
Though not directly related to water testing or water quality, we felt this article deserved a little airtime on our site.
According to a recent study conducted in the Roanoke Valley, VA area we may get a lot more than we bargain for when we fill up our cups at the soda fountain.
Those soda fountain machines found in restaurants and fast food joints may be squirting out liquids contaminated with fecal bacteria, a small study found.
Whether it was self-serve or behind the counter, nearly half of all sodas dispensed from a sample of 30 machines in the Roanoke Valley in Virginia had coliform bacteria — a group of bacteria banned in drinking water by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) because it indicates the possibility of fecal contamination.
“We can’t have that in our drinking supply. But they’re coming out of these soda fountain machines,” she said.
The soda machines had turned into a bacteria metropolis with Escherichia coli (E. coli), species of Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, Stenotrophomonas, Candida, and Serratia. Most of the bacteria were resistant to the 11 antibiotics Godard tested on her samples.
“About 70 percent of the beverages had bacteria and 48 percent of them had coliform bacteria,” said Godard.
However, only 20 percent of the sodas sampled had coliform bacteria that exceeded the EPA limit for drinking water.
Since the tap water and ice from the machines didn’t test positive for bacteria, Godard and her team ruled out the possibility of a valley-wide contamination of the water supply.
Various brands of soft drinks and various types — sugared, diet or even water — were contaminated, leading Godard to think that it wasn’t the soda, but the machine that was growing bacteria.
From all her testing, Godard still isn’t sure where the bacteria came from. Few people observed in the restaurants touched the nozzles of the soda fountain machines and restaurant managers Godard interviewed reported cleaning the nozzles daily.
But only one restaurant manager reported rinsing the plastic tubing within the machines on a regular basis. ( source )
Needless to say the shock value of this made us gag and immediately swear off fountain drinks for life. Too bad we won’t have the ability to keep that promise. Whether we like it or not, dispensing systems like the ones mentioned in the article exist in many areas of our life: beer taps at the bar, water dispensers on the refrigerator, water coolers at the office, etc.
The good news in all of this deals with the fact that we can do something about bacteria growing in all of those machines: WE CAN CLEAN IT OUT.
Sounds stupid, but a little cleaning, or in this case flushing, goes a long way when it comes to keeping our sodas, beers and water bacteria-free. Check the owners manual for instructions on how to properly flush the lines in your machines today!
Concerned that your water cooler may have harmful bacteria in it? Try the WaterSafe Water Cooler Bacteria test kit!
European Style Faucet Has Form and Function
Now that you’ve tested your drinking water with a water test kit from SenSafe or WaterSafe to get a preliminary idea about the condition of your drinking water, and followed up with a thorough water test performed by a certified water testing laboratory, you may need (or simply want) to get a drinking water filtration system for your home.
In the old days people had to make due with unattractive, bulky water filtration systems sitting on their counters and standard, non-fashionable faucet styles if they wanted a POU (point-of-use) water filtraton system. Not anymore.
Companies like Crystal Quest now manufacture POU water filtration systems that mount neatly out of site under the sink AND good-looking faucets designed specifically to work with them.
Below you will find a selection of Crystal Quest water filtration systems that hook up under the sink. Each filter operates a little differently so make sure you read the descriptions carefully to make sure you choode the perfect Crystal Quest water filter for your water’s needs.
Coliform Bacteria Found in School Drinking Water
Although the title of this blog posting sounds terribly bad, no one fell ill because of the bacteria found in a Connecticut school recently. Why? Because school officials perform routine water testing on the water.
GUILFORD — Administrators are promising to soon remedy an elementary school’s well water problem that may have been caused by the area’s past agricultural uses.
Tests of a well providing drinking water to part of Melissa Jones Elementary School, the only school in town using well water, showed a presence of more coliform bacteria, or E. coli, than standards allow. Coliform is a marker for potentially harmful bacteria, Principal Paula McCarthy wrote to parents in an e-mail alert Monday.
The well will be rechlorinated, and any sinks or water fountains currently closed will be open by the time students return from winter break Jan. 4, school board Chairman William Bloss said. So far no children or faculty have reported illnesses caused by drinking the water, he said, and there are other wells bringing clean, safe water to the rest of the building.
“I think the feeling is it’s from the historical agricultural use of the land in that area and fertilizer run-off, and waste run-off, because obviously in a well, you’re working with groundwater and eventually anything in there works way into ground water,” Bloss said.
Sinks and water fountains in the gym and upstairs hall have been closed and instant sanitizer pumps have been used for hand washing in those areas, according to the principal’s message.
Alan Meyers, a doctor and school board member, said more than 90 percent of E. coli strains are safe, but they are markers of contamination.
“It’s a normal constituent of feces. It could come from cows across the street or humans or anywhere,” Meyers said. “So far, no one has gotten sick, so it’s just good that it’s monitored.”
Dangerous strains of E. coli are sometimes found in hamburger meat and can cause serious illness, but that’s not what Melissa Jones Elementary School test results showed, Meyers explained.
Officials say they faced the same situation last spring and a few years ago, which is why the water is tested once per quarter.
“It’s not a question of the system being outdated. It’s because of the type of groundwater in north Guilford,” he said.
The cost to rechlorinate the well is “not prohibitive,” Bloss said, and it’s “very much secondary to making sure we are meeting all guidelines on water quality.”
The system flush will take two weeks and water will be retested, said Cliff Gurnham, director of operations and facilities.
He said school administrators have investigated piping water in and determined it would have to be piped from Abraham Baldwin Middle School, which also once relied on well water. However, high costs have ruled out that option, Gurnham said.
Susan Misur can be reached at “smisur ‘at’ hregister.com”. ( source )
As usual, the virtue of periodic well water testing for critical water parameters (like coliform bacteria) proved its worth. Had school officials not acted proactively, they might have wound up with an entire school full of sick students and faculty.
More importantly, in some people’s minds, the simple and relatively inexpensive quarterly checks for coliform bacteria probablysaved the school district hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and lawsuits.
So now the question most of us ought to ask ourselves naturally becomes, “When was the last time MY child’s school or daycare had ITS water tested for coliform bacteria?” — especially if the school draws its water from a well and resides in a former or current agricultural/farming region.
Question: Where Can I Buy DPD Tablets?
Janet wrote in and asked…
I need to buy Dpd Tablets and I have not found a supplier nor a Manufacturer to buy from.
Kindly Link me with Dpd Tablets Manufacturers who can supply me.
We thank you very much, Janet, for your inquiry and suggest you take a look at the material below, as it will lead you to what you seek:
For those of you interested in learning more about DPD and its uses, please refer to an earlier posting entitled What id DPD?.
National Stock Number (NSN) for “Chlorine Test Tablet” — 6550012191061 and 6550014257957
Salt-Free Water Softener and Filtration System
As a general rule ‘water conditioners’ have pretty much always used salt as a means of removing excess hardness (calcium) from water. Homeowners and businesses experiencing problems with calcium wind up with scale deposits in water lines and crusty deposits on faucets and other bathroom fixtures. Scale in the lines lead to higher heating and energy costs as well as increased usage of cleaning agents/detergents and high repair costs for appliances damaged by constricted water flow.
Certain areas of the United States have put restrictions on the use of salt-based water conditioners because of environmental concerns. Water conditioning units that use salt require discharging and replacing of salt periodically and questions have come up regarding how to properly dispose of the salty wastewater.
Naturally when a problem like this arises, someone comes up with an answer:
Saltless Water Conditioner and Anti-Scale system Eagle A 2000-FG is a new break-through technolgy, designed to remove water hardness without a use of salt. The system is designed to convert calcium in water (which is a main element found in hard water) into calcite crystals of nanometer size, which no longer cause lime deposits. The calcium then is simply rinsed away.
The system also removes existing scale deposits from pipes and heat exchange surfaces, which is called descaling, and can further protect the system from future formation of scale. So, it can pay for itself in days!
Eagle A 2000-FG Anti-Scale Water Conditioner specifications:
+ In First stage, Water flows through a 20″ sediment filter cartridge that removes sediment, silt, sand and dirt. Also extends the life of the filter media and prevent damage.
+ In stage 2, water flows through an Eagle Anti-Scale media tank.
+ In stage 3, water flows through a 20″ solid carbon cartridge that removes volatile organic carbon compounds (VOC’s), insecticides, pesticides and industrial solvents *
+ In stage 4, water passes through a .01 micron Ultrafiltration (UF) membrane. Ultrafiltration (UF) is an important purification technology used for the production of high-purity water. UF is effective for the removal of colloids, proteins, bacteria, viruses, parasites, protozoa and pyrogens (e.g., gram-negative bacterial endotoxins), other organic molecules larger than .01 micron, and most other water contaminants known today.
Wastes no water, uses no electricity
* – if present in water ( source
Whether you live in an area that has banned water conditioners that use salt or not, it seems as though the Eagle A 2000-FG Anti-Scale Water Conditioner offers consumers an interesting option for salt-free water conditioning and filtration.
Below you will find links to replacement filters for the Eagle A 2000-FG Anti-Scale Water Conditioner.
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