Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Sudip Bandyopadhyay said this in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on the quality of water purifiers in the country.
The Minister admitted that Reverse Osmosis (RO) water purifiers absorb useful as well as harmful microbes, but added that the Indian Council of Medical Research has said there is no known scientific data available to show if this makes the water harmful, or if minerals found in water do not reach the body and thereby makes people vulnerable to disease.
Bandyopadhyay said the National Institute of Virology has conducted a study to evaluate the performance of domestic water purifiers.
"The result indicated that six of the eight purifiers tested did not conform to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or sometimes USEPA) standards. The Bureau of Biologic Standards looks into standardisation, certification and quality of purifiers," the Minister said in his written reply.