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Friday, April 15, 2011

Vestergaard Frandsen : LifeStraw® - Introduction

Have you ever seen these Water Purifiers? I just discovered them today. The look great! I want one for my self too!:) 

Don

LifeStraw® - Introduction

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) call for a reduction of the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water by half between 1990 and 2015. Yet, an estimated 884 million people in the world, 37% of whom live in Sub-Saharan Africa, still use unimproved sources of drinking water1.

Image             of child drinking water from bowl through LifeStrawLack of access to safe drinking water contributes to the staggering burden of diarrhoeal diseases worldwide, particularly affecting the young, the immunocompromised and the poor. Nearly one in five child deaths – about 1.5 million each year – is due to diarrhoea. Diarrhoea kills more young children than AIDS, malaria and measles combined2. Drinking contaminated water also leads to reduced personal productive time, with widespread economic effects.

Approximately 43% of the global population, especially the lower-income populace in the remote and rural parts of the developing world, is deprived of household safe piped water. Thus, there is a pressing need for effective and affordable options for obtaining safe drinking water at home. Point-of-use (POU) treatment is an alternative approach, which can accelerate the health gains associated with the provision of safe drinking water to the at-risk populations. It empowers people to control the quality of their drinking water. Treating water at the household level or other point of use also reduces the risk of waterborne disease arising from recontamination during collection, transport, and use in the home, a well-known cause of water-quality degradation3. In many rural and urban areas of the developing world, household water-quality interventions can reduce diarrhoea morbidity by more than 40%4,5. Treating water in the home offers the opportunity for significant health gains at potentially dramatic cost savings over conventional improvements in water supplies, such as piped water connections to households6.

Water filters have been shown to be the most effective interventions amongst all point-of-use water treatment methods for reducing diarrhoeal diseases7. The Cochrane review demonstrates that it is not enough to treat water at the point-of-source; it must also be made safe at the point-of-consumption.





References

1. WHO and UNICEF. 2008. Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation

2. UNICEF and WHO. 2009. Diarrhoea: Why children are still dying and what can be done

3. Wright, J. et al. 2003. Household drinking water in developing countries: a systematic review of microbiological contamination between source and point-of-use. Trop Med Int Health 9: 106 – 117

4. Ghislaine, R and Clasen, T. 2010. Estimating the Scope of Household Water Treatment in Low- and Medium-Income Countries. Am. J. Trop. Med. Hyg., 82(2), pp. 289–300

5. Fewtrell, L. et al. 2005. Water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions to reduce diarrhea in less developed countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Infectious Diseases (5): 42–52

6. International Finance Corporation (World Bank Group). Safe Water for All: Harnessing the Private Sector to Reach the Underserved

7. Clasen, T. et al. 2006. Interventions to improve water quality for preventing diarrhoea (Review). The Cochrane Collaboration

Ordering Information

Please note we do not currently sell our products on a retail basis in North America.

Go there...
http://www.vestergaard-frandsen.com/lifestraw/lifestraw

LifeStraw

From - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LifeStraw is a water filter designed to be used by one person to filter water so that they may safely drink it. It filters a maximum of 1000 litres of water, enough for one person for one year. It removes 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria, 99.99% of viruses, and 99.9% of parasites[1].

LifeStraw includes LifeStraw and LifeStraw Family, which are complementary point-of-use water filters designed by the Swiss-based Vestergaard Frandsen for people living in developing nations and for distribution in humanitarian crisis. LifeStraw Family filters a maximum of 18,000 liters of water, providing safe drinking water for a family of five for up to three years. LifeStraw and LifeStraw Family were distributed in the 2010 Haitian earthquake and 2010 Pakistan floods.

Contents

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[edit] Construction

The LifeStraw is a plastic tube 31 centimeters long and 30 millimeters in diameter[2], and costs around $5.50 plus shipping[3]. Water that is drawn up through the straw first passes through hollow fibers that filter water particles down to 15 microns across, using only physical filtration methods and no chemicals.[4] The entire process is powered by suction, similar to using a conventional drinking straw, and filters up to 1000 liters of water.[5] While the initial model of the filter did not remove Giardia lamblia[6], later models (starting—date/reference needed--) do remove a minimum of 99.9% of waterborne protozoan parasites including giardia and cryptosporidium[7].

[edit] Critical response

LifeStraw has been generally been praised for its effective and instant method of bacteria and protozoa removal and consumer acceptability[8]. Paul Hetherington, of the charity WaterAid, has criticized the LifeStraw for being too expensive for the target market. He also points to other important problems linked with accessing the water in developing countries, which wait to be solved, but are not addressed by the device itself.[9]

Although LifeStraw are available for retail sale in the developing world, the majority of LifeStraw are distributed as part of public health campaigns or in response to complex emergencies by NGOs and organizations that give them away for free in the developing world[10].

LifeStraw has been praised in the international media and won several awards including the 2008 Saatchi & Saatchi Award for World Changing Ideas, the ‘INDEX: 2005’ International Design Award and "Best Invention of 2005" by Time magazine[11].

[edit] See also

[edit] References

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LifeStraw and other Water Purifiers
Lifestraw - Google Search
Lifestraw: A $5 Water Filter Provides Clean Water For a Year – Blue Living Ideas
Lifestraw - Google Search
Vestergaard Frandsen : LifeStraw®
Vestergaard Frandsen : LifeStraw® - Introduction
Vestergaard Frandsen
Lifestraw - Google Search
LifeStraw.html
LifeStraw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
HowStuffWorks "How Lifestraw Works"
Vestergaard Frandsen : Product FAQ
Vestergaard Frandsen : LifeStraw®
Vestergaard Frandsen : LifeStraw® Family
Vestergaard Frandsen : ZeroFly® Shelter
Vestergaard Frandsen : Contact Us
Vestergaard Frandsen : PermaNet®
Vestergaard Frandsen : ZeroVector® Durable Lining - Concept
A Movement to End Malaria Deaths on MashableTV - live streaming video powered by Livestream
YouTube - LifeStraw from Vestegaard Frandsen
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YouTube - Water Purification System - New Life International
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YouTube - Delphi, The Portable Water Purifier
YouTube - Aquasana - AQ-4000 Water Filter Installation Demo
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Don

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