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Personal Water Purification Devices

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What is a LifeStraw?

The LifeStraw is a personal water purification device designed to turn surface water into drinking water, thus providing access to safe drinking water wherever you are. It was developed by a specialist commercial company, Vestergaard-Frandsen who research, develop and manufacture disease control textiles.

LifeStraws are approximately 25cm long with a diameter of 3cm, very light and of solid construction. It has a cord to place around your neck. It kills disease-causing micro organisms which spread diarrhoea, dysentery, typhoid and cholera.

The LifeStraw contains a number of filters and a pharmaceutical pouch that clean the water and treat it chemically. There are no electrical or moving parts and no maintenance is required - simply blow back after use to remove the debris that has been filtered.

With the Lifestraw it is possible to drink water from almost any fresh water source.

The Lifestraw is a must have device for all campers, back-packers, travellers, hikers, aid workers, volunteers, survival enthusiasts and for those planning for any eventuality.

The Lifestraw is a sealed unit with no moving parts therefore making it exceedingly durable. As there are no moving parts, no servicing or maintenance is required. Like a normal drinking straw, the Lifestraw is operated purely by the user sucking on the end of the straw and so no electricity/batteries are required which means your lifestraw is always operational.

As each lifestraw is only 25cm (10 inches) long and 29mm (just over 1 inch) in diameter, it is is the essential addition to any emergency survival kit be it for home, vehicle or back-pack.

LifeStraw Personal Water Filter

Why are LifeStraws needed?

There is a massive need. More than one billion of the world's population are without access to safe water, half suffer from waterborne diseases of which approx. 6000 people, mostly children, die every day from consuming unsafe water - even if we could help a small fraction of these people, what an achievement that would be.

The product will not be sold in individual units. In order to focus our efforts on developing products for people who need them the most, Vestergaard Frandsen will concentrate on serving customers that can purchase large quantities of the product for the developing world.

The LifeStraw® Concept

The major change with Lifestraw version 2 is the minimization of residual Iodine levels to improve the appeal to the end users - ie. the filtered water now tastes better with the use of the device almost undetectable.

Like the original version, the light-weight, 12.2 inch (25cm) device can be carried or worn around the neck and filters a minimum 700 litres of water (a year's worth) and requires no electricity or spare parts for the duration of its life. Lifestraw provides protection from from common diarrhoeal diseases, removing particles down to 15 microns and killing and removing 99.999% of waterborne bacteria plus 98.7% of waterborne viruses.