Given that water is one of the most important resources around the globe, far too many people do not have access to clean bodies of it. Not only can this lead to lower quality production methods that utilize the resource, but can also pose serious health risks.
Currently, unsafe or inadequate water sanitation and hygiene causes approximately 3.1% of deaths around the globe, as well as 3.7% disability adjusted life years (DALYs) worldwide. Pollution from sewage, industrial waste, and numerous other environmentally harmful materials being dumped into lakes and oceans is obviously the biggest culprit making bodies of water unsafe for consumption.
However, a lack of safety testing has also allowed poor quality to go unnoticed until serious consequences present themselves. In order to ensure the proper sanitation of the resource, water testing kits utilize conductivity principles to determine the cleanliness of the liquid.
Conductivity is a measure of the water’s ability to pass electrical current. This is a telling factor because conductivity is affected by the presence of inorganic dissolved solids — potential pollutants — which do not conduct electrical current very well.
However, the liquid must be at a baseline temperature of 25 degrees Celsius for water testing kits to be effective. Water conductivity can be influenced by temperature; the warmer the water, the higher the conductivity.
For water that requires exceptional sanitation, the inverse of conductivity, called water resistivity monitoring, is used exclusively as a measure for high purity water applications. This is because Ultrapure water is not an effective electrical conductor as evidenced by its 18 megohm-cm resistivity (55 nS/cm conductivity). Conductivity is employed for the entire spectrum of water quality monitoring.
While water itself may be abundant, the same cannot be said for what is deemed safe and fit for consumption. Wider availability of water testing kits could save countless lives.
