Serve your E. coli in brass jugs, slightly chilled

Sometimes I mention articles (or blurbs, actually) that I see in The Week, the newsmagazine that my dad and I fight over every Tuesday. I love it, I love it, I love it IloveitIloveit. So I'm about to mention something else. (I just have to plug the magazine because it is so great - it's the news in about 40 pages or less, presented in a digest-y format that includes what a bunch of different publications said about this thing or the other, and it also has entertaining oddball stuff, and reviews of reviews, and such. I don't know what I did without it - I look forward to it so!)

So this week there was a snippet on the Health and Science page about a study that attributed antimicrobial properties to brass jugs, suggesting that they be shipped to every person living in a developing country, because the plastic jugs they're using are SO two months ago.

Brass jugs polish off disease

Brass water containers could combat many water-borne diseases, according to microbiologists. The discovery suggests that these vessels should be used in developing countries, where people typically view cheaper plastic containers as the better option. Water-borne diseases remain a serious threat in many poor regions of the world, with around 2 million children dying each year from diarrhoea. Efforts to provide safe drinking water have had difficulty reaching remote areas.

snip

But [Rob Reed, a microbiologist at Northumbria University in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, who led the brass study] also heard an interesting piece of local wisdom: people believe that traditional brass water containers offer some protection against sickness. The idea intrigued Reed, who was in Asia investigating the antibacterial effects of sunlight on water.

snip

Reed, with his colleagues Puja Tandon and Sanjay Chhibber, carried out two series of experiments. In Britain, the researchers filled brass and earthenware vessels with a diluted culture of Escherichia coli bacteria, which can cause illnesses such as dysentery. They then counted the surviving bacteria after 6, 24 and 48 hours. A similar test was carried out in India using naturally contaminated water.

The amount of live E. coli in the brass vessels dropped dramatically over time, and after 48 hours they fell to undetectable levels, Reed told the Society for General Microbiology's meeting this week in Edinburgh, UK.

The key to the result is copper, which can disrupt biological systems, Reed explains. The element acts by interfering with the membranes and enzymes of cells; for bacteria, this can mean death. Pots made of brass, an alloy of copper and zinc, shed copper particles into the water they contain.

That's kind of interesting, except for all the logistical problems involved in replacing everybody's water jugs. And I have a wee little quibble - E. coli isn't actually a big causative agent of dysentery (which is scant, bloody diarrhea. Isn't that happy?) When I think "dysentery" (which is probably more often than most people, nerdily enough!) I think "Shigella" or "Entamoeba histolytica". One type of E. coli, enteroinvasive E. coli (EIEC) causes dysentery, but I don't think it's nearly as prevalent as the other two critters. I'd be interested to see what kind of activity the brass pitchers have on Vibrio cholerae, which is a pretty huge problem in countries with poor sanitation.

Mia, my favorite quasi-germaphobe, resist the temptation to encase yourself in brass. You must resist!