| Let's look at an exciting new development brought to | | | | 4,000 gallons over its life span. LifeStraw Family is |
| us by the Vestergaard Frandsen Group's (VFG) | | | | created to sift dirt, and filter out parasites, bacteria |
| portable personal filtration system, also known as | | | | and viruses. |
| LifeStraw. Occasionally, it's the most basic | | | | Given that the necessity of clean water is not |
| technologies that have the greatest impact on | | | | promoted as intensely as AIDS prevention or |
| people's lives. It is a light blue plastic tube, thicker | | | | education training in some third world countries, . |
| than an ordinary straw, which contains filters that | | | | Next is the step of promoting Straw technology so |
| make water drinkable, even water filled with typhoid, | | | | that non-governmental organizations and aid groups |
| cholera even diarrhea causing microorganisms. | | | | will utilize them. |
| Results showed that the 'Straw' filtered out of the | | | | Recently LifeStraw was recognized as the foremost |
| water all pollutants to levels where they do not pose | | | | "world changing idea" in a recent technologies |
| a health risk. At the U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | | | | competition, influencing education, medicine and aid |
| tested the LifeStraw's effectiveness in water | | | | work. VFG received $50,000 from Saatchi, plus |
| containing Enterococcus faecalis bacteria, Escherichia | | | | another $50,000 for the PR firm's marketing |
| coli B and the MS2 coliphage virus plus silver and | | | | department. |
| iodine. Results showed that the LifeStraw filtered out | | | | Saatchi, owned by the French company, SA, choose |
| most pollutants to levels where they do not incur a | | | | LifeStraw over a field of competitors including: a |
| health risk to those drinking the water. These filters | | | | brain-computer interface created to assist paralyzed |
| which are made from halogenated resin, kill nearly | | | | people communicate by way of neural signals, a |
| 100% of bacteria and almost 99% of the viruses as | | | | reusable controller to enhance the transporting of IV |
| they passed through LifeStraw. | | | | fluids. Also the field consisted of a collapsible wheel |
| However, the Straw lacks the ability to filter heavy | | | | that can be folded for easy storage when not in use |
| metals like fluoride or iron nor does it remove | | | | on bicycles or wheelchairs. Plus they out ranked an |
| cryptosporidium nor giardia , although the company's | | | | inkjet printing system for fabricating tissue scaffolds |
| CEO, showed that there is a model of LifeStraw | | | | on which cells can be grown and a 3-D monitor that |
| available that can filter out arsenic | | | | utilizes special optics plus software to create a |
| Normally, after one year of extensive use the | | | | hologram-like image of the patients anatomy for |
| LifeStraw's filters become excessively clogged and | | | | cancer treatment. Not to mention books with |
| unable to use. About than ten inches long, the 'Straw' | | | | embedded sound lessons to help instruct illiterate |
| can filter up to 185 gallons of water, approximately a | | | | adults on health care issues, also a phone that |
| year's supply for a person. | | | | provides telecommunications to poor rural populations |
| The triumph of the personal filtration system brought | | | | in third world countries, and finally an optical |
| VFG to introduce its LifeStraw Family filter, an | | | | prosthesis for working around a diseased or damaged |
| immediate microbiological filter that supplies about six | | | | eye and transmitting signals straight to the brain. |
| gallons of safe drinking water every hour and about | | | | |