'Drinkable Book' Pages Clean Dirty Drinking Water

An anonymous reader writes: Scientists have developed what they're calling the "Drinkable Book," which contains pages that can be torn out and used to effectively filter drinking water. The book has just completed a series of field trials in a few African countries, and it successfully removed more than 99% of the bacteria in water taken from contaminated sources, bringing it in line with U.S. tap water. The book's pages are imprinted with nanoparticles of silver and copper, which sterilize a wide range of microorganisms. The lead researcher says each page can filter about 100 liters of water before needing to be discarded. The team currently makes all the pages by hand, so their next step will be to find a way to automate production.

Comments

6 months in?

[Nidi62]

So, since the book contains instructions and reasons for filtering water and the pages get consumed as filters, what happens when you are 6 months in and half the book is gone? Why not just make a big stack of filters and a small pamphlet on how/why to use them?

Re:Silly

[Anonymous Coward]

Even scarier is it will spread the concept that "a page from a book can make your drinking water safe" among the populace there if it DID catch on. Will the average person realize that it has to be a book with this specific kind of filter paper?

Seems like a bad plan all around.

Free funding opportunity

[Overzeetop]

You want to get this to all the nations of the world where safe potable water is scarce? Just convince the Christians to print their bibles using this paper and take those versions on their mission trips. It could be the first time in history that the word of [the Christian] God was used to truly save someone.