Newton Fund - Development of a novel combined arsenic filtration/monitoring system for community-scale water supplies

世界卫生组织估计，全球有1.4亿人饮用的水中砷含量超过安全水平。砷是一种有毒的自然污染物，从基岩的自然来源进入含水层，也来自工业制造和采矿等人类活动。砷即使在极低的水平(世卫组织建议的水平为十亿分之十)也是有毒的，长期接触会导致10%的接触者发生致命的内癌。由于砷无味、无臭，在长时间接触后才会出现发烧或疼痛等急性症状，因此砷中毒理所当然地被称为“沉默杀手”，导致公共健康危机。水测试是缓解和管理砷的关键，有一句名言说得很对，“你无法测量的东西，你无法管理的东西”。由于目前测量饮用水中砷污染的测试只是半定量的、耗时的，而且需要训练有素的人员，因此需要改进快速、负担得起、准确和易于使用的测试。在这个项目中，团队将开发一种创新的手持式砷传感器，然后将其集成到新型砷过滤器中。

The WHO has estimated that 140 million people globally drink water containing arsenic above safe levels.Arsenic is a toxic naturally-occurring contaminant that enters aquifers from natural sources in the bedrock andalso from human activity such as industrial manufacturing and mining. Arsenic is toxic even at extremely lowlevels (WHO recommended levels are 10 parts per billion) with long-term exposure leading to fatal internalcancers among 10% of those exposed. Because arsenic is tasteless, odourless and gives no acute symptomssuch as fever or pain until after prolonged exposure, arsenic poisoning has been justifiably coined the ‘silentkiller’, causing a public health crisis. Water testing is key to arsenic mitigation and management, where theadage ‘what you cannot measure you cannot manage’ is pertinent. Because current tests for measuring arseniccontamination in drinking water are only semi-quantitative, time-consuming and require trained personnel,there is a need for improved tests that are rapid, affordable, accurate and easy-to-use. In this project the teamswill develop an innovative handheld sensor for arsenic that will then be integrated into a novel arsenic filter.