Wednesday 19 August 2015

Drink this book

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Let me tell you about a very cool book: what’s being called a drinkable book.

More than 840,000 people die each year from water, sanitation, and hygiene-related causes. Contaminated water kills 5,000 children a day.

Enter inventor Dr Theresa (Teri) Dankovich and her drinkable book, whose pages can purify water.

imageThis book is very special. It's not just for reading. It can help people in developing countries drink cleaner, safer water.
    The pages looks like an ordinary book but each page has been specially made with small amounts of silver and copper within it. If you tear out a page you can then use it to purify and filter water.
    It gets rid of harmful bacteria, so it is safe to drink. One page can clean up to 100 litres of water. A whole book could filter one person's water supply for four years. Tests have been carried out to prove how effective it can be.
    Dr Teri Dankovich worked on the technology for a number of years. Dr Dankovich said: "All you need to do is tear out a paper, put it in a simple filter holder and pour water into it from rivers, streams, wells etc and out comes clean water - and dead bacteria as well." …
    The book’s pages have detailed instructions printed in English and in local languages, telling people how to use the pages and why drinking clean water is really important for good health…  The tiny particles of silver and copper in the paper attracts bacteria and kills it.  During trials, in 25 different places around the world, the pages were found to remove 99% of bacteria from dirty water. Tests show the water is then as clean as American tap water.
    Each sheet can be used up to 100 times. One book could filter a person's water supply for up to four years.

Technology to the rescue again.

[Pic from BBC News]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Can they print the Koran on this paper? Would be nice if that book would be good for something, too.