UNC Gillings Army major works on safer water for troops
A U.S. Army major at Carolina tries to win a battle against a threat for both the military and civilians — contaminated water.
When U.S. soldiers are fighting on the battlefield or behind enemy lines, they can encounter a challenge that’s almost as hazardous as enemy fire, air strikes or improvised explosive devices (IEDs): contaminated water. But a U.S. Army major is now enrolled in a PhD program at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he hopes to create a powerful new weapon to combat this threat for the military and others.
“Bad water can slow down and compromise a mission, hitting every man in the field. This becomes especially dangerous for troops in the Special Operation Forces who are often operating behind enemy lines on missions where they have to be extremely mobile, quick and discreet,” said Jay Reyes, an active-duty U.S. Army Major and PhD student in the Environmental Sciences and Engineering Department at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. “Along with the immediate health complications, the water we are finding in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and other under developed nations can produce long-term negative health effects on our troops. That’s why I’m doing this research.”
The research Reyes mentions is the subject of his PhD studies, which he is doing under the supervision of Mark Sobsey, PhD, Kenan Professor, environmental sciences and engineering. It involves the inherent quality of water troops ingest in the field, especially when it is needed by small, highly mobile teams traveling on foot, such as SOF.
“For these small teams we can either parachute in bottled water or troops rely on water they find along the way and use portable water purification systems to cleanse it,” Reyes said. “Parachuting water in is problematic, not always possible, especially in remote and mountainous terrain, and doing so often ends with nearly half or more of the water containers shattered and the water spilt. But small personal purification units are limited in their ability, as well, and are predicated on eliminating microbial threats. The result: any harmful chemicals in the water remain and are ingested by the soldiers.”
The military has responded by procuring what are called small unit water purifiers (SUWPs). However, while standards have been established for the mitigation of harmful microbial agents no such protocols exist for removing chemical agents. Nor is there a way to test whether manufactured SUWPs that claim to remove these chemicals do so effectively.
To keep reading, please see UNC Gillings School for Global Public Health: http://sph.unc.edu/sph-news/doctoral-candidate-us-army-major-works-on-safer-water-for-troops/
