Bacfree Sdn. Bhd.

: : LEARN ABOUT WATER / CONTAMINANTS : :

Furthermore, modern society's contribution is the contamination of our water sources by industry and agriculture in the in the form of fertilizers, pesticides and industrial waste. These can affect the aesthetic quality of the water, but more seriously, can give rise to long-term adverse health effects.

CONTAMINANTS
They can be categorized under the following headings

Contaminant Group	Examples of Contaminant	Source of Contaminant
Physical	Turbidity Colour Odour	Naturally Occurring
Microbiological	Pathogenic bacteria Cysts Bacteria Yeast Mould	Naturally Occurring Endemic
Volatile Organics	Halomethanes Solvents	Chemical effluent
Herbicides and Pesticides	Lindane Atrozine DDT	Intensive agriculture Industrial discharge
Phenols & Pah's	Chlorophenols	Synthetic water pipework.
Non-Metals	Sulphates Chlorides Nitrates Chlorine Arsenic Bromate Trihalomethanes	Naturally occurring. Chemical effluent Fertiliser Agricultural pollution Large scale water treatment
Metals	Lead Antimony Iron Magnesium Manganese Mercury Copper Aluminium	Naturally occurring Industrial discharge and waste Plumbing Large scale water treatment

NOTE: The list of contaminants is not exhaustive and growing rapidly and the above list is intended only to provide an indication of what may be present in today's drinking water.
Many of the above contaminants would require lengthy explanations to define their harmful effects to the health of the consumer.
It is however true to say that under ideal conditions none of them are desirable in drinking water.