Safer Water Worldwide

Reported December 2006

CINCINNATI (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- In the United States, with just the turn of a knob, clean, drinkable water is right at our fingertips. That's not the case in many parts of the world. But new technology is making it possible for people worldwide to have drinkable water ... With a stir of a powerful powder.

You wouldn't drink dirty water straight out of a river. But in developing nations, tap water is not a choice.

"People have to share their drinking water sources with their animals. People many times drink from open ponds or streams," Greg Allgood, Ph.D., of P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water Program based in Cincinnati, tells Ivanhoe.

...And that leads to deadly water-borne illnesses. Dr. Allgood, an industrial toxicologist, is director of P&G's Children's Safe Drinking Water Program, a non-profit venture for the consumer-products giant.

"We need to rapidly address the crisis of so many children dying from unsafe drinking water," he says. One packet of P&G's PUR Purifier of Water can clean about two-and-a-half gallons of water as clean as your tap water. Dr. Allgood says the packets contain iron sulphate and calcium hypochlorite, which kill bacteria and viruses while removing parasites and heavy metals.

The packets are being used in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Africa, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Pakistan and are helping save lives from some of the most deadly diseases.

PUR doesn't have U.S. approval yet. Meanwhile, P&G is working with other non-profit agencies to expand the distribution of PUR into other African nations. On the open market, packets sell for around 10 cents a piece.

The American Society for Microbiology and the American Waterworks Association contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Melanie Suer
Children's Safe Drinking Water
Procter & Gamble
Cincinnati, OH 45202
(513) 983-6354

American Water Works Association
Denver, CO
(303) 794-7711
(800) 926-7337
http://www.awwa.org

American Society for Microbiology
Washington, D.C. 20036-2904
(202) 737-3600
http://www.asm.org

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