Engineers at the University of Missouri have designed a low-cost water filter that can remove arsenic from household drinking water and provide peace of mind for millions of people who are at risk of drinking arsenic-contaminated water around the world.
High levels of a naturally occurring chemical called arsenic have been a source of contamination of ground-based drinking water, such as well-water, for people in many countries around the world, including parts of the United States. Consuming arsenic-contaminated water is a serious public health issue, leading to severe health complications including skin, lung, bladder, kidney and liver cancers, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
Now, engineers at the University of Missouri College of Engineering have designed a low-cost water filter that can remove arsenic from household drinking water and provide peace of mind for millions of people who are at risk of drinking arsenic-contaminated water around the world. In addition to arsenic, the researchers believe their filter design concept could also be used to eliminate other drinking water contaminants, such as lead. While the issue of arsenic-contaminated water has been studied before, the MU researchers believe this proof-of-concept filter design is first of its kind for single household use.
Zhengyang “Phillip” Wang is the lead author on the study. Wang recently graduated from MU with a doctorate in environmental engineering and is now a postdoctoral scientist at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. For nearly a decade, he has been interested in exploring the boundaries of how scientists can solve both existing and emerging environmental issues, especially water contamination. Wang believes an advantage of their filter concept is its longevity — he said it could last a couple months before needing to be replaced.
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