Certainty when drinking

1998/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Giza zientziak

“Spending very little money a year can save the lives of many people.” This is the reflection made by Professor Nikolaos Nikolaidis as soon as his invention has been made known.

Water that is drunk in many parts of the world is often poisoned with arsenic, which causes serious health problems. This situation is accentuated in regions such as Bangladesh and Bengal. To be able to consume water with certainty, it must contain a maximum of 10 micrograms of arsenic and values have been measured between 300 and 4,000 micrograms. As if it were not enough, and due to high local temperatures, anyone who works can drink between 15 and 20 liters a day. The consequences are serious due to skin conditions, renal disease and, in addition, premature death.

Faced with this problem, Professor Nikolaidis has presented a simple, cheap and useful ingenuity. A practical filter of sand and iron chips. The filter is attached at the end of the water source; before the barium sulfate the iron oxidase reacts and arsenic becomes arsenopirite. This product is not dissolved in the water and precipitates in the filter, thus eliminating to a large extent the arsenic of the water.