Clean drinking water free of contaminants including microplastics and bacteria could be a reality no matter where you are in the world. According to Food & Wine, LifeStraw has created a portable straw that will remove nearly all contaminants.
It's incredibly easy to use. You can sip directly from any water source, and the straw will remove 99.999% of microplastics and 99.999999% of bacteria.
LifeStraw CEO Alison Hill said it's "built for the toughest water conditions in the world."
While that might sound too good to be true, people have tested the LifeStraw and posted the results online. One such test used three levels of filthy water: soil water, muddy water, and pond water. Each time the result was clean, drinkable water.
Another test, posted to Reddit, took it a step further. They used "super stagnant pond water that's been sitting out in the sun for a while" and looked at it under a microscope before using a pump to force the water through the LifeStraw. It showed all sorts of microscopic life, including bacteria, but after passing through the LifeStraw, there was no microscopic life, just debris that the tester assumed was from the pump used to extract the water.
It does this by using hollow fiber membrane technology that allows water molecules to pass through but traps most bacteria, parasites, and microplastics.
The filter straw was invented in 1999 in an effort to eradicate Guinea worm disease, which the World Health Organization says should happen in the near future. Now, as the dangers of microplastics have come into the spotlight, the need for something like LifeStraw has never been clearer.
Microplastics exist in tap water and are even more prevalent in bottled water. They have been linked to liver fibrosis and lipid buildup, and one study found that they impacted blood flow in the brains of mice.
Fortunately, researchers have recently discovered a way to filter microplastics out of the human body in a process similar to dialysis, but LifeStraw offers an easy way to stop microplastics from entering the body in the first place.
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