在貧窮落後的國家，清潔食水是寶貴資源，全球1/6人口完全沒有清潔食水飲用，
逾20億人衛生設施不足，每數分鐘就有一人死於不潔食水傳播的疾病。
去年獲《時代》雜誌選為最佳發明之一的「生命吸管」(LifeStraw)，為缺乏清潔食水的人帶來希望。
「生命吸管」公司行政總裁弗倫德松(Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen)說，
「生命吸管」就像一般飲管簡單易用，「使用者把膠管插進水中，然後吸吮」。
他表示「生命吸管」毋須修理又不用電，「可以在地球上最複雜的環境使用」。
每支「生命吸管」都附有圖解說明書。
LifeStraw使用7種過濾器，包括網絲、活性碳和碘，可以阻絕病毒、細菌及寄生蟲。
首先兩層絲製濾器先過濾掉髒 東西，再來含碘的樹脂可殺死 99.3% 的細菌和病毒；
最後活性碳可捕捉到漏網的細菌和病毒，以確保水的純淨達log7~log8，比很多先進國家的水還乾淨。
因此再髒的水都可過濾消毒成可飲用的水質；進而預防飲水引發的疾病，如霍亂、傷寒及痢疾等。
每天6000兒童飲污水死
「 生命吸管」採用殺菌樹脂，當水通過「生命吸管」時，飲管內多種混合物質會殺死水中細菌，
過濾了導致腹瀉、痢疾、傷寒和霍亂等疾病的微生物，每支飲管僅售約3.5美元 (約台幣100元)，
但可用上1年或過濾 700公升水，可以挽救數百萬條人命。
弗倫德松指，現時每天逾6,000名兒童因飲用不潔食水死亡，這些悲劇應可避免，
「生命吸管」也可給地震和颶風的災民使用。
致力清潔食水問題的國際慈善機構WaterAid稱讚「生命吸管」是個「驚人發明」，
但擔心它治標不治本。
Inventor: Vestergaard Frandsen Group
LifeStraw® Concept
Sharing a passion to achieve the Millennium Development Goals such as poverty eradication, environmental up-gradation, gender equality, and specifically 'reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water' by the year 2015, we recognize the immense sense of urgency.
At any given moment, about half of the world's poor are suffering from waterborne disease, of which over 6,000 - mainly children - die each day by consuming unsafe drinking water.
Today, more than one billion people of the world's population are without access to safe drinking water, causing lack of safe water supply to rob women and young girls of dignity, literacy and time.
Safe water interventions have vast potential to transform the lives of millions of people. Water filtration tools not only provide safe drinking water but also have a positive health impact on the most vulnerable populations, including young children, pregnant women and those with debilitated immune systems.
The Cochrane review (2006) demonstrates that water filters are the most effective interventions amongst all point-of-use water treatment methods for reducing diarrhoeal diseases. This study also proves that it is not enough to treat water at the point-of-source; it must also be made safe at the point of consumption.
LifeStraw® Personal and LifeStraw® Family are both point-of-use water filters - truly unique offerings from Vestergaard Frandsen that address the concerns for affordably obtaining safe drinking water at home and outside.
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