Manila's experiment with 'purifying paint' Health | Nitrogen Dioxide. Current scientific evidence links short-term NO2 exposures, ranging from 30 minutes to 24 hours, with adverse respiratory effects including airway inflammation in healthy people and increased respiratory symptoms in people with asthma. Also, studies show a connection between breathing elevated short-term NO2 concentrations, and increased visits to emergency departments and hospital admissions for respiratory issues, especially asthma. NO2 concentrations in vehicles and near roadways are appreciably higher than those measured at monitors in the current network. In fact, in-vehicle concentrations can be 2-3 times higher than measured at nearby area-wide monitors. Near-roadway (within about 50 meters) concentrations of NO2 have been measured to be approximately 30 to 100% higher than concentrations away from roadways.
Individuals who spend time on or near major roadways can experience short-term NO2 exposures considerably higher than measured by the current network. Low-Cost Biosensor Detects Contaminated Water. September 7, 2012 April Flowers for redOrbit.com — Your Universe Online For children under five years old, diarrheal disease is the second largest cause of death. This disease kills as many as 1.5 million children globally every year according to the World Health Organization (WHO). These horrifying statistics led a group of undergraduate students from Arizona State University to develop a low cost biosensor — a simple device that would detect contaminated water. The device design comes as part of the 2012 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) competition. The iGEM is a prestigious global event that challenges students to design and build simple biological systems made from standard, interchangeable parts.
The nine-member ASU team started prepping for the synthetic biology competition this summer. The team is working on two biosensor designs. The second design is made for portability and tests the membranes of bacteria. UC Davis study: Triclosan, a chemical used in hand sanitizer, antibacterial soap may hinder muscle function - Sacramento Business Journal. Super-polluted city tries to clean itself with smog-eating paint. Manila is one of the world’s five dirtiest cities, but graffiti?
That’s not a problem. It’s not that people don’t paint on the walls in the hyper-polluted Philippines capital, because they do. But they do it with a paint that actually eats smog out of the air. The catalytic paint, called Boysen KNOxOUT, reacts with light and water vapor to filter out nitrogen oxides. An environmental scientist interviewed in this BBC video says it can scrub out 20 percent of polluting nitrogen.
Manila is deploying the paint in the form of massive murals, which are both beautiful and, because of their size, effective.