Vestergaard Frandsen : LifeStraw® Family in Comparison to Other Point-of-Use Interventions for Safe Drinking Water

LifeStraw® Family in Comparison to Other Point-of-Use Interventions for Safe Drinking Water

Intervention	Bacteria	Virus	Protozoan cyst	Meets Environmental Protection Agency protocol
LifeStraw® Family	Minimum 99.9999%	Minimum 99.99%	Minimum 99.9%	Yes
Boiling	99.9999%	99.99%	99.9%	Yes
Flocculation disinfection (Pur)	99.9999%	99.99%	99.9%	Yes
Chlorination	Depends upon the contact time and quantity of variable chlorine			No
Bio sand filter	90%-99%	50%-90%	99.9%	No
Ceramic filter	>99%	Low	99.9%	No
Solar Distillation	99.999%	99.99%	50%-99%	Unclear

Intervention	Water treatment capacity	Flow rate/processing time	Factors affecting performance	Impact on water taste/appearance	Repeat intervention required
LifeStraw® Family	18,000 litres	Average 9 litres/hour	Safe storage if water not consumed directly	Neutral for taste; positive for appearance	No
Boiling	Not applicable	20 minutes (includes heating water to 100°C, 1 min boiling, cooling)	Boiling temperature and safe storage	Neutral or negative for taste; neutral for appearance	Yes
Flocculation disinfection	10 litres	30 minutes	Exposure time, chemical concentration in mix	Negative for taste; positive for appearance	Yes
Chlorination (dilute NaOCl₂)	1000 litres	30 minutes contact time after preparation and dosing	Exposure time, turbidity, chlorine demand	Negative	Yes
Bio sand filter	Up to 50 litres/day	0.1/0.3 metre/hour (when the average depth of sand filter is 0.7 metres)	Proper construction, operation, and maintenance	Neutral for taste; positive for appearance	No
Ceramic filter	5000-10,000 litres	1-3 litres/hour	Pore size and consistency; bacteriostatis; maintenance	Neutral for taste; positive for appearance	No
Solar Distillation	1-2 litre per bottle average	6 hours	Sunlight, turbidity, dissolved solids	Neutral for taste and appearance	No