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| Science & Technology |
| A Real Environmentalist Wins $1M, Helps Save Countless Lives |
| 2007-02-03 |
| A professor who developed an inexpensive, easy-to-make system for filtering arsenic from well water has won a $1 million engineering prize — and he plans to use most of the money to distribute the filters to needy communities around the world. The National Academy of Engineering announced Thursday that the 2007 Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability would go to Abul Hussam, a chemistry professor at George Mason University in Fairfax. Hussam's invention is already in use today, preventing serious health problems in residents of the professor's native Bangladesh. After moving to the United States in 1978, Hussam got his citizenship and received a doctorate in analytical chemistry. The Centreville, Va., resident has spent much of this career trying to devise a solution to the arsenic problem, which was accidentally caused by international aid agencies that had funded a campaign to dig wells in Eastern India and Bangladesh. The wells brought fresh groundwater to farmers and others who previously had been drinking from bacteria- and virus-laced ponds and mudholes. But the aid agencies were unaware that the groundwater also had naturally high concentrations of poisonous arsenic. As infectious diseases declined, arsenic-related skin ailments and fatal cancers began to increase — a problem that attracted much attention in the 1990s. "I myself and all my brothers were drinking this water," said Hussam, who added that his family did not get sick, possibly because they had a good diet, which can help stem the effects of digesting arsenic. Allan Smith, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Berkeley, said arsenic poisoning affects millions of people worldwide and it has been difficult to convince people that what seems to be good water might be toxic. "You can't see it or taste or smell it," Smith said. "The idea that crystal-clear drinking water would end up causing lung disease in 20 or 30 years is a little weird. It's unbelievable to people." Hussam spent years testing hundreds of prototype filtration systems. His final innovation is a simple, maintenance-free system that uses sand, charcoal, bits of brick and shards of a type of cast iron. Each filter has 20 pounds of porous iron, which forms a chemical bond with arsenic. The filter removes almost every trace of arsenic from well water. About 200 filtration systems are being made each week in Kushtia, Bangladesh, for about $40 each, Hussam said. More than 30,000 have been distributed. Hussam said he plans to use 70 percent of his prize so the filters can be distributed to needy communities. He said 25 percent will be used for more research, and 5 percent will be donated to GMU. The 2007 sustainability prize is funded by the Grainger Foundation of Lake Forest, Ill., and the contest was set up to target the arsenic problem. Among the criteria for winning was an affordable, reliable and environmentally friendly solution to the arsenic problem that did not require electricity. Hussam's award will be presented Feb. 20 at Union Station in Washington. Large numbers of wells in the US have been closed for that very reason. A large scale commercial version of this filter would be a godsend. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #6 Roght on, Deacon, especially in Chicom coal. But it is natural, so it is OK. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-02-03 22:39 |
| #5 There is organic arsenic present in coal. Any system that burns coal or deals with coal (as in coal gassification) must also deal with organic arsenic. There is an awful lot of nasty stuff in nature. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2007-02-03 20:42 |
| #4 I deal with arsenic removal in water systems all the time. There are many systems using chemicals, adsorption media, etc. What is the best system depends on the water chemistry. Dissolved arsenic is in the arsenite form, and oxidized arsenic is in the arsenate form. The easiest method for removal is to oxidize the dissolved arsenic in the presence of ferrous iron, which is the dissolved iron in well water. If about 20x the iron ia present with arsenite, the arsenic forms a complex with the iron and out it goes. Sorta rides shotgun with the iron. Ferric (oxidized) iron drops out of water as small particles and gets caught in the sand filter. Sometimes, if you don't have enough iron in the water, you can add some to take out the arsenic. For oxidation, we use chlorine or potassium permanganate. Hussam has made a little modular system to do the oxidation and filtration. The thing is that the sand will have to be backwashed or changed periodically so the arsenic does not break through and start the poisoning process again. The tragedy off all this is that they drilled thousands of wells in Bangladesh and did not do water quality tests until people got sick or died. In my work, we do a complete battery of tests, including nuclear related, for about $2300 for a new public well. There is natural uranium present in some bedrock, so it is a good idea to check for that. Another mineral that can cause problems in fluoride, in large enough concentrations. Back to arsenic: there are some good portable arsenic testing kits that read down to 3 parts per billion. A typical test takes 20 minutes. Worth the price. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-02-03 20:13 |
| #3 What's wrong with me when my first thought after reading the guy's name, Abul Hussam, is that this is really a system for extracting arsenic for use as a poison? |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-02-03 18:02 |
| #2 Here's something worthy of a Nobel Prize. |
| Posted by: danking70 2007-02-03 17:45 |
| #1 Good one on him for this. Let's hope he makes his millions off industry and continues to help the needy. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2007-02-03 14:21 |