Better Performance in Removing Impurities from Tap Water than Boiling Water Verified across Malaysia, the Country's First

Osaka, Japan - Panasonic Corporation (https://www.panasonic.com/global/home.html) ("Panasonic") today announced that its Living Appliances and Solutions Company has conducted tests in Malaysia to verify tap water purification performance using the company's alkaline ionizers (TK-AS700 and TK-AS500) and faucet water purifier (TK-CJ300) equipped with a high-performance filter cartridge ("filter cartridge") in joint research with Dr. Minhaz Farid Ahmed at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Dr. Mazlin Mokhtar, former professor at UKM, and confirmed their performance in removing four types of impurities and outperforming boiling tap water. Although the performance and quality of the filter cartridge is guaranteed by the JIS standard for household water purifiers, this was the first time that the tap water in Malaysia was used in verification tests*¹.

For tap water in Malaysia, while the quality of water immediately after treatment at water treatment facilities is guaranteed based on the drinking water quality standards set by the Ministry of Health (MOH) Malaysia, there is no official statement about the quality of water supplied to each household. In Malaysia, it is common to boil tap water to ensure safe drinking water. However, there is a concern that boiling water does not remove some substances, such as heavy metals, that dissolve into the tap water from the water pipes.

Verification tests were conducted in six regions across Malaysia to compare the water purification performance and water quality between the tap water boiled for five minutes and that filtered through the filter cartridge by evaluating the four types of substances contained in tap water: Free residual chlorine ; chloroform, which is considered a probable carcinogen; iron and manganese dissolved into tap water from the water pipes. The tests revealed that filtration through the filter cartridge showed better performance in removing the impurities than boiling the tap water at six sites. As a result, it is expected that the use of Panasonic's filter cartridge will make drinking tap water safer and easier in Malaysia.

With the ability to stay close to people's lives cultivated over 100 years, Panasonic aims to create inspiring products and services that will benefit the future of people and the Earth. We will continue our efforts to provide tap water that people can drink with greater peace of mind in Malaysia and around the world.