Household Water Filter

Although disclosed by a few former health ministers several years ago, not one had any clue about the cause of such statistics. Coincidentally, from market feedback, Malaysians install household water filter more than the rest of the world and Chinese outnumbered the other races in that aspect.

Undeniably, such figures alone could not justify the cause. Here are some additional basic water treatment scientific theories, coupled with water analysis, to verify such claims.

 

Theory Of Water Treatment

Organic matter (leaves and insect carcasses) makes up most of the dirty sediment trapped inside the filter. The organic sediment will eventually decay and dissolve into the treated water – unless it is drained thoroughly and frequently. All of the municipal treatment plants were able to fulfill this compulsory requirement. They utilize separate extra-large pump and piping, coupled with persistent drainage. Due to the hassle described and lack of market demand, no household water filter company has yet to fully comply with this basic requirement.

 

Water Analysis

If anyone were to take the initiative to collect water samples from any seasoned, dirty filter for a before-and-after test, the finding of carcinogens like trihalomethane (THM) or nitrite, is bound to be shocking! Recently, a Chinese news channel exposed the complaints of that several consumers of a very famous international brand of water filter. With water analysis done, the consumers found nitrite content in the filtered water, which was nitrite-free before passing through the expensive water filter.

 

Misconceptions Of Our Rakyat

There are many misconceptions of what entails healthy water quality and filtration process. Let us itemized some of the few:

• Few Malaysian recognizes the existence of World Health Organization (WHO). Worse still, there is limited public understanding of the WHO’s comprehensive recommendation on healthy water quality. Hence, some of the non-WHO compliant water filter providers, including RO, alkaline, energy and hydrogenated water filter suppliers, easily take advantage of the public ignorance and falsify their claims in providing ‘healthy water’.
• Generally, with the sweet persuasion of salesperson, consumers prefer to be drowned with “good news” and turn a blind eye to the “bad news”. They are willing to pay a high price to companies who claims to have miraculous effect and ignore the warning of side effects. There are so many seemingly “good” report on the water analysis being advertised but hardly any on the fact that carcinogen is being generated by the filter. Despite having news of cruel truth occasionally popping up, the “bad news” of these filters would faded out rapidly.
• People only demand for clean water but no one has yet to demand for clean filter. Most people thought that the dirty sediment are just mud, and if left unattended, would remained as it is – even after being stagnant for a long period. In reality, the decaying organic-based trapped sediment would eventually dissolved and transform into carcinogen inside the filter. This horrifying sequelae has never come across the consumers’ mind.

 

Debunking The Myth Of Alkaline, RO And Energy Water

There are several negative reports on these so-called ‘healthy’ water filter. However, such reports are rapidly fading out; no thanks to the little or no follow-up/ explanation by the authority.

 

Alkaline Water

NTV7, TV8 news and other mass media had reported the illegal nature of their claims pertaining medical benefits. Despite that, I personally did not see any impact on the market. Logically, it would have been a miracle for an exorbitantly-priced water filter company to maintain its sales even after being denied of its earlier “illegal” claims. If the authority was serious about taking up the case, a search with the relevant department on the supplier’s annual turnover would show something amiss.

“The pH Miracle”, a program involving the consumption of alkaline water, was founded by a cancer quack doctor, Mr. Robert O. Young. He was recently indicted by the courts of the United States of America (USA) to pay for the damages made unto his follower/patient, Dawn Kali, up to a whooping amount of USD105 million. The plaintiff had only asked for $10 million. The verdict however, awarded the plaintiff a much larger sum of USD105 million instead. Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6351723/Jury-awards-terminallyill-mother-four-105million-pH-Miracleauthor-duped-her.html

 

RO Water

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported that long-term consumption of mineral-free water (RO water) may lead to mineral deficiency and health problems such as heart attack, hypertension and even type-2 diabetes mellitus.

 

Energy Water

When a local company tried expanding their business to Hong Kong and Taiwan, it was faced with a strong resistance from their local TV news, following thorough investigations and interviews with the relevant professionals. The action was taken to convince the public as to not fall into such scams.

My professional comment in this is: if the energy water is as good as its claims, and after so many years of trial by tens of thousands of consumers in Malaysia, the result must be good enough to boost its sales. Contrary to such expectation, the idea of energy water’s popularity has faded even with the inaction by our local authority and mass media.

 

Remediation Proposal I

would like to appeal to the Health Ministry of Malaysia as to not merely repeat the statement of such health problems but act on the said statistic instead.

My suggestion is to organize a campaign to collect water samples from various seasoned household water filter for analysis. I had done a Trihalomethanes (THM) test in the year 2009 and the result was predictably devastating. However, the report was only meant for my own study. It is an impossible mission to pursue alone, without getting the authority involved. This project would be a low-budget campaign as it is quite straight-forward and requires a moderate sample size. With a little faith in my technical expertise in water treatment, we can prove a point that may save our family and fellow Malaysians from these poisonous scams.

Hopefully, with strong evident and publicity, the authority will be able to educate the public in changing their minds about such urban myths and hence, altering the Malaysian health statistic.