Certifications and Standards

Through a comprehensive consensus process, the NSF Joint Committee on Drinking Water Treatment Units has developed key standards for evaluation and certification of drinking water treatment units. These include:

• NSF/ANSI Standard 42: Drinking Water Treatment Units - Aesthetic Effects Overview: This standard covers point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) systems designed to reduce specific aesthetic or non-health-related contaminants (chlorine, taste and odor, and particulates) that may be present in public or private drinking water.
• NSF/ANSI Standard 53: Drinking Water Treatment Units - Health Effects Overview: Standard 53 addresses point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) systems designed to reduce specific health-related contaminants, such as Cryptosporidium, Giardia, lead, volatile organic chemicals (VOCs), MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether), that may be present in public or private drinking water.
• NSF/ANSI Standard 55: Ultraviolet Microbiological Water Treatment Systems Overview: This standard establishes requirements for point-of-use (POU) and point-of-entry (POE) non-public water supply (non-PWS) ultraviolet systems and includes two optional classifications. Class A systems (40,000 uwsec/cm2) are designed to disinfect and/or remove microorganisms from contaminated water, including bacteria and viruses, to a safe level. Class B systems (16,000 uw-sec/cm2) are designed for supplemental bactericidal treatment of public drinking water or other drinking water, which has been deemed acceptable by a local health agency.