Bio Nano Consulting: Drink Safe - A low-cost disposable test for arsenic contamination of drinking water

It is estimated by the WHO that 130 million people globally drink water containing arsenic
above safe levels.
Because current tests for measuring arsenic contamination in drinking water are semiquantitative,
time-consuming and require trained personnel, there is a need for a portable,
rapid, inexpensive, accurate and easy-to-use new environmental sensor for use in both
developed and developing countries.
Arsenic is a toxic naturally-occurring contaminant that enters aquifers from the dissolution of
arsenic-containing minerals in bedrock and also from human activity such as industrial
manufacturing and mining.
Arsenic is toxic even at extremely low levels (WHO recommended levels are 10 ppb) with
short term exposure causing skin lesions, skin cancer and harm to the nervous system, while
long term exposure leads to fatal internal cancers among 10% of those exposed. Because
arsenic is tasteless, odourless and gives no acute symptoms such as fever or pain until after
prolonged exposure, arsenic poisoning has been justifiably coined the ‘silent killer’, causing a
public health crisis.
Water testing is key to arsenic mitigation and management, where the adage ‘what you cannot
measure you cannot manage’ is pertinent. Current arsenic tests suffer from cost, accuracy,
precision, and usability issues which limit the effectiveness and scope of mitigation programs.
In fact, ‘field test’ is a misnomer for many products that more closely resemble field
laboratories requiring trained personal to perform delicate chemical reactions in the field.
Using a unique proprietary enzyme, this project innovatively modifies the technology
contained in familiar glucose home tests manufactured in the billions each year, to create a
step-change improvement in arsenic testing by solving customer usability, cost and accuracy
needs. Millions of users have demonstrated the ease-of-use of glucose tests; now similar
technology can be used to transform arsenic testing.
This project