Filtering water through bone char is an effective way to remove excess fluoride. In some communities, however, using bone char is not an option because people are not willing, for religious reasons or cultural reasons, to |
In
the United States and other developed countries, fluoride is often
added to drinking water and toothpaste to help strengthen teeth. But too
much naturally occurring fluoride can have exactly the opposite effect.
Large amounts of fluoride can lead to dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis.
“Dental
fluorosis is a darkening or mottling of the teeth, and you can tell
very easily when people smile, because their teeth will be dark and
discolored,” says Laura Brunson, environmental scientist at the
University of Oklahoma (OU) in Norman, Okla.
While dental fluorosis is not painful, it can have a dramatic effect on an individual’s ability to get a job or find a spouse.
“They
may have a harder time finding some type of public service job. And
there is sort of a social stigma attached to it, a poverty stigma,” says
Brunson.
Skeletal fluorosis is much more debilitating.
“We
saw some women in India who were physically unable to put their hands
behind their heads. Some skeletal fluorosis can come with pain
associated with it as well, and children sometimes end up with bowed
legs or deformed knees or arms,” says Brunson.
With
support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Brunson is working
on methods of removing fluoride from drinking water, using tools and raw
materials readily available in local communities. Brunson and her team
recently returned from a month of fieldwork in Ethiopia, where they
tested filtering methods using charred bones and charred wood.
“We’d
prefer to find filtration materials that don’t have to be shipped in
from another country, and that are inexpensive,” says Brunson.
“We
took materials, such as bone char and aluminum-coated bone char that
we’ve worked with in the laboratory for quite a while, to Ethiopia and
did continuous flow studies in that setting to see what would happen
under more realistic conditions,” she explains.
Brunson
says the need to understand and incorporate local cultural
considerations is just as important as the technical tools needed to
remove fluoride or other toxins like arsenic.
In
some communities, she notes, using bone char is not an option because
people are not willing, for religious reasons or cultural reasons, to
use water that’s been filtered through bones. So then, more questions
need to be asked. “‘What would be acceptable to you? Would wood char be
acceptable as opposed to bone char because it’s not an animal product?’
Looking at those kinds of things,” says Brunson.
The
team included OU anthropology professor Paul Spicer, OU Health Sciences
Center graduate student Andrew Borgstrom, and experts from Addis Ababa
University in Ethiopia.
“We
were able to do a couple of community surveys, trying to talk to people
about, ‘What do you think of your water, how do you use water, where do
you get it from, what do you think about the current treatment system,
is there something you would prefer to have? And how could this
treatment system be more convenient for you to use this water for
drinking for your family,’ asking those types of questions,” says
Brunson.
She
is beginning a study of the use of plant waste material as a possible
filter material, testing char made from the grain teff. Teff kernels are
used in the production of injera, the staple bread of Ethiopia.
Brunson
says many water projects in Africa that were started by well-meaning
organizations are, unfortunately, not showing long-term success.
“Reports
estimate there are nearly 200,000 wells across Africa that have been
dug and implemented by well intentioned organizations. They raise money,
they go to Africa, they drill a well; the community has water. That’s
great. And then they leave and then six months later, two years later,
for whatever reason, the well breaks. It runs dry, there’s a tiny part
that breaks and no one knows how to repair it. It doesn’t work anymore,
and people are back to drinking contaminated water out of a river or a
lake,” she says.
As
an instructor at the Price College of Business at OU, Brunson also
brings a business and marketing aspect to her clean water research.
She’s trying to find ways to make clean water solutions sustainable and
locally controlled.
“For
example, if it’s someone’s livelihood to sell those bone char filters,
it’s doing two things. It’s getting bone char filters to people that
need to have water that’s treated for fluoride. So it’s great for those
people, but then, it’s also growing the local community economy and
helping the person who’s running that business make a living. Then, that
person has the motivation to keep charring the bones, to keep talking
to the community members about why it’s important for them to treat
their water and to keep purchasing the bone char so that their children
and their families have treated drinking water,” says Brunson.
She also sees excitement from her students in developing long-term answers.
“I
have them write journals to reflect on some of the things they’re
learning in class, and I ask them, ‘If you were going to start a social
entrepreneurial venture, what would you do?’ And I start getting some
really interesting answers. They realize, I am really passionate about
this, and I could really make a difference through this, while still
being an entrepreneur,” says Brunson.
And,
she says, clean water can have a much more dramatic impact than just
eliminating disease. According to the United Nations, 884 million people
around the world do not have access to clean and safe drinking water.
“If
you can get people a water source that’s safe and much closer to home,
you save so much time. Frequently, the burden of collecting fresh water
for drinking and cooking falls on girls and women. So, with a clean and
close water supply, then girls are able to spend more time going to
school. Women are able to spend more time doing family improvement
activities,” says Brunson.
There is also a big health improvement, if people are not suffering from diseases caused by arsenic, fluoride, or parasites.
“Kids
are able to go to school and learn much better if they don’t have worms
and diarrheal disease. Parents are able to go to work more often. So,
there are huge economic and education benefits,” says Brunson.
The
University of Oklahoma’s College of Engineering is home to the WaTER
Center (Water Technologies for Emerging Regions). In addition to
research on the removal of toxins like fluoride and arsenic, the center
studies techniques such as passive wetland treatments for improving
water quality, and also how climate change and drought might impact
water cleanup.
Science and social entrepreneurship: Coming together to make affordable, safe water available to millions.