Homeowner water quality testing through use of miniaturized ISE and FET-based sensor arrays

在许多农村司法管辖区都很常见，但在加拿大海事区尤其如此，大多数相对分散的非城市居民依靠私人拥有和维护的挖井或钻井，因为低人口密度决定了市政系统是不可行的。不幸的是，在没有明显威胁或急性健康后果的情况下，这些私人拥有的井很少定期评估相对于水质准则的化学或微生物超标情况。这是不幸的，因为在新斯科舍省，33%的井有一种或多种化学污染物超标，估计有25-40%的私人井有粪便大肠菌群污染。流行病学研究表明，人体铅、砷和铀的负荷升高，揭示了这种受污染水的重要性。与工业合作伙伴Drinkable一起，我们的团队正在为井主开发一种家庭测试套件，该套件也可以应用于水产养殖领域，基于一次性微型传感器阵列，结果可以传输到用户的手机上。该阵列将由离子选择电极（ISEs）组成，用于检测溶解的金属物质，以及用于检测裂解细菌细胞成分的场效应晶体管（fet）。每种分析物的水质参数将以数字形式报告，并相对于加拿大饮用水指南表示，但也以简单的颜色编码方式表示，表明每种分析物是低于、等于或高于建议的饮用水浓度。如果分析物超出指导标准，将提示用户联系附近的水质实验室和/或公共卫生机构，以获得更多信息和确认测试。虽然家庭用水检测将是主要的市场部分，但淡水水产养殖系统同样需要实时水质检测，因此Drinkable将在水产养殖设施中测试水质传感器，以衡量用户体验、测试准确性和相对于当前工业实践的成本效益。

Common to many rural jurisdictions, but particularly so in Maritime Canada, a majority of the relatively dispersed non-urban residents rely on privately owned and maintained dug or drilled wells as low population densities dictate municipal systems are not feasible. Unfortunately, few of these privately-owned wells, in the absence of an obvious threat or acute health outcome, routinely assess chemical or microbial exceedances relative to water quality guidelines. This is unfortunate as in Nova Scotia, 33% of wells have health-based exceedances in one or mor chemical contaminants, with an estimated 25-40% of private wells having fecal coliform contamination. The significance of this contaminated water is revealed by epidemiological studies demonstrating elevated body burdens of lead, arsenic, and uranium. With Industrial partner Drinkable, our team is developing an at home testing kit for well owners, which may also have application in the aquaculture sector, based on a single-use miniaturized sensor array with results conveyed to the users cell-phone. The array will be comprised of ion-selective electrodes (ISEs) for detection of dissolved metal species, with field-effect transistors (FETs) for detection of lysed bacterial cell constituents. Water quality parameters for each analyte will be reported both numerically and expressed relative to Canadian drinking water guidelines, but also represented simply in a colour-coded manner indicating whether each analyte is below, at, or above recommended drinking water concentrations. Analytes exceeding guidelines will prompt the user to contact nearby water quality laboratories and/or Public Health agencies for additional information and confirmatory testing. Although homeowner water testing will be a primary market segment, freshwater aquaculture systems similarly require real-time water quality testing so Drinkable will test-market the water quality sensors with aquaculture facilities to gauge user experience, test accuracy, and cost-effectiveness relative to current industry practices.