USEPA Approves First Test Strip for Drinking Water Compliance

Industrial Test Systems, Inc., a water quality test strip manufacturer located in Rock Hill, SC, is pleased to announce that its SenSafe™ Free Chlorine Water Check test strip is available for compliance testing as described in the Federal Register (Vol 72, No. 47, Monday, March 12, 2007, p.11204, ITS Method D99–003). SenSafe™ Free Chlorine Water Check can now be treated as an equivalent to other free chlorine test kits. States will have the discretion to approve their use per authority at 40 CFR 141.74 (a) (2). The original recommendation letter (October 2003) from the EPA stated: "We (EPA) believe that the ITS test strips will provide the regulatory community with a valuable option for monitoring free chlorine levels in drinking water."

"Municipalities now have a rapid (40 seconds), accurate, and low-cost option for regulatory compliance monitoring without the worries of indicator "bleach-out" or monochloramine interferences. According to the EPA ; "The false positive and false negative rates were below 0-1%. Method precision and accuracy were characterized in multiple drinking water matrices at varying chlorine concentrations. For example, the validation studies showed that free chlorine recovery was approximately 100% and relative standard deviation (RSD) was generally below 20% for analysis of drinking water samples fortified with 0.1ppm of free chlorine or above; the chlorination level required by National Primary Drinking Water Regulations is 0.2ppm. Finally, results did not vary across different lots of ITS test strips."

As an alternative to DPD, SenSafe™ Free Chlorine Water Check test strips avoid the errors inherent to currently available test methods. The patented design of the strip (US Pat. Nos. 5491094 & 6541269) makes this possible. All of the reagents needed to perform the test are embedded in a "solid state" in the reaction area of the aperture. In comparison to DPD, and according to the manufacturer "the problem with the use of reagent ‘pillows’ is that while the ‘pillows’ itself contains the precise amount of reagent needed to accurately test a defined amount of aqueous solution, the reagent from the open ‘pillows’ can come in contact with the operator's hands, can be spilled, or can have adulterants or contaminants accidentally added. This creates significant chance for error. If errors in the amount or condition of reagent occurs the test results, and the conclusions reached based on those results, are subject to error. These errors can result in unnecessary, and possibly dangerous, changes in water processing conditions predicated upon false readings. "

Sold in bottles of 50 test strips (part# 481026) and in 30 individually-wrapped packets with a color chart card (part# 481126), both with a detection range of 0.0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.6, 0.8, 1.2, 1.5, 2.0, 2.6, 4.0, 6.0 mg/l, SenSafe™ Free Chlorine Water check is affordable; with a retail price for either packing option of only $17.99. That's only $0.36 per test (based on a bottle of 50 test strips).

Industrial Test Systems, Inc, has been setting standards in water quality testing and producing water quality test strips and test kits since 1989. ITS offers test strips for a wide variety of ions as well as water quality meters, instrumentation, labware and much more.

ITS manufactures accurate test kits for over 30 parameters. Our latest product, the eXact EZ waterproof photometer, eliminates common testing errors since there are no vials, liquids, and tablets to handle. EZ is EPA-Compliant for Chlorine testing, features 0.01 ppm resolution, and measures 18 different parameters. For more information, visit www.sensafe.com

Mike McBride,
Marketing Manager
mmcbride@sensafe.com

Industrial Test Systems, Inc. 1875 Langston Street Rock Hill, SC 29730
Toll Free: 800-861-9712
Local: 803-329-9712
Fax: 803-329-9743

www.sensafe.com/epafreechlorine.php

This release was published on openPR.