This is the kind of thing that really serves to remind all of us here in the First World just how much of an exception we are, and how even our poorest are still within the top tier of the world's privileged:
The Lifestraw is a little longer than a toilet paper tube, and about the same diameter [... ] Inside the tube, a series of mechanical screens, carbon particles, and resin beads filter and kill most pathogenic bacteria and microorganisms common in water systems throughout the world. Using a patented material called PuroTech Disinfecting Resin, the filters are rated for 700 liters of water - - approximately one year's use for a single individual. They require no training to use (just suck) and minimal maintenance (parent company Vestergaard Frandsen recommends periodically blowing the straw clear of water to clean the filters)
Two bucks buys disease - free water for a single person for a year. How cool is that?
Hey, Bill - - how about forking over some o' that big fat cash pile you sleep on? You could provide a year's worth of clean drinking water to a billion people for chump change.
And check out manufacturer Vestergaard - Frandsen's product line: mosquito beds with deltamethrin - impregnated netting; plastic sheeting that contains insecticide, plus the aforementioned LifeStraw. Even their tag - - "Disease Control Textiles" - - is a self - contained revolutionary concept.
I'm all for pure research, but sometimes I think that this is what Science should be all about, all the time: creating practical methods of improving the quality of life for the species by yoking the powers of the marketplace to human ingenuity.
