After a discussion with @vello today
I’d like to ask a few more questions about the approach to analysing water samples in the field and some ready-to-use ‘key-in-hand’ kits.
Those kind of questions also have sprung up during Learning by Training: 3-day workshop in Brussels in September 2024.
In addition to our current of our currently documented and tested features, which are:
- Seeds bioassays to expose toxicity
- Open Hardware Spectrometry on water samples
- Building a net to catch microplastics
The use of chemical analysis kits, sometimes more focused like specific ion, can be an excellent complement to field investigation and a strong angle in a defined tactic.
We can share 2 examples for those types of kits:
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Sampling and extraction kit from The Gems of Water Eu program
All these kits require training in maunipulation and a good understanding of the protocol.
Quick nutrient testing kits are increasingly becoming more sensitive, cheaper and easier to use. This provides scope for a wide range of uses: both creating opportunities to discover much more about the levels of pollution in the landscape and democratising water quality testing by making it available to a wide audience.
However, all quick kits have their limitations, and none that we have tested so far approach the accuracy of laboratory analysis. It is therefore important to
understand the strengths and limitations of these kits: to ensure that
their results are validly used and interpreted.https://content.freshwaterhabitats.org.uk/2015/10/CWfWTechnicalDocumentPRFinal18Sept2017FINAL.pdf
For these two examples, nothing is under a free licence, unlike what we’re doing here in Hack₂o. And some are very expensive, while other examples that you find elsewhere can be very, very expensive indeed!
Another very important point: the autonomy of practices and investigations, of science, reproducibility is very often neglected, particularly when it involves a very strong constraint of dependence on third parties for access to basic components.
Our seed bioassay is one of our most advanced products in the attempt to follow REASSURED recommendations. But it’s not perfect.
It is very rare for chemical water analysis kits to be close to these criteria.
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R: Real-time connectivity − Tests are connected and/or a reader or mobile phone is used to power the reaction and/or read test results to provide required data to decision-makers
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E: Ease of specimen collection. Tests should be designed for use with non-invasive specimens
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A: Affordable. Tests are affordable to end-users and the health system
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S: Sensitive − Avoid false negatives
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S: Specific − Avoid false positives
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U: User-friendly − Procedure of testing is simple — can be performed in a few steps, requiring minimum training
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R: Rapid and robust − [Medical Context] Results are available to ensure treatment of patient at first visit (typically, this means results within 15 min to 2 hours); the tests can survive the supply chain without requiring additional transport and storage conditions such as refrigeration
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E: Equipment free or simple. Environmentally friendly − Ideally the test does not require any special equipment or can be operated in very simple devices that use solar or battery power. Completed tests are easy to dispose and manufactured from recyclable materials
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D: Deliverable to end-users − Accessible to those who need the tests the most
If we can combine our existing methods and kits with chemical analysis kits, we may be able to take this approach even further. We will also have to put considerable effort into designing test kits under free licence.
I also hope that you here Hack₂O members would participate in this open discussion and questions here.
In the meantime,
we’re going to try and get these 2 kits.
I’m also going to open a post dedicated to the proposal that Hack₂O joins The Gems of Water: engaging citizens to monitor water quality