From the surface, “The Drinkable Book” feels like a standard book. It’s about an in. Or two thick, with 20 pages. But these pages do lots of convey information. Each page is a valuable tool for preventing waterborne illness within the developing world as it is a water filter as well. Globally, about 3.4 million people die every year from water-related diseases.
Theresa Dankovich, the chemist who developed the paper, says “a lot of water issues arise not only because they are not informed on how to treat water, but also because people haven’t got the technology to do it. I actually just like the educational component, so it’s totally nice to store it during a book.”
The pages are a couple of millimeters thick and contain silver nanoparticles. The silver can rid the water of harmful microbes but has little or no effect on humans.
“The microbes are killed by the process and so the water is clean for us to drink. Essentially, they are available in contact with silver within the paper and as a result,” she says.
To use the book, you rip one amongst the pages in half, slide it into the filter box (which doubles as a canopy for the book), and pour contaminated water through. After some minutes, the bacteria is reduced by 99.9 percent and is such as U.S. tap water.
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Dankovich has been performing on this paper for years. The book came together when a billboard agency designer known of the technology. WATERisLIFE, one of the advertising agency’s clients linked Dankovich’s technology with DDB and so, the drinkable book was born.
Washing your hands before eating and keeping trash far away from your water source is included in the water safety tips, printed in non-toxic ink. That information is going to be printed in English and native languages.
“Our main goal is to scale back the spread of diarrheal diseases, which result from a drink that’s been contaminated with things like E. coli and cholera and typhoid,” Dankovich says.
The books cost just some dollars to make; each bit of paper costs about 10 cents. The filters can last a pair of weeks, even up to a month. That the entire book could provide the tools to filter clean water for a couple of years, just like the best water filters reviewed at 랭킹닷컴.
Dankovich tested the paper in the African nation last year. And she’ll go to Ghana and take the drinkable books for feedback and more tests this fall.