Environmental issues:
a) Curly’on enables to filter nickel for water purification plant.
Nickel can damage nature, plants, algae, when rain includes high concentration of metal. To understand environmental issues at a city scale, our team went to visit a water treatment plant to know more about rules and controls of heavy metals in the water. Astonishingly, there is no control of heavy metals concentrations whereas these pollutants are absorbed on matter suspension and eliminated in sludge. So nickel is in the environment and can be found in the water we use.
b) Curly’on gives the possibility to salvage and recycle nickel.
Concerning recycling, nickel stocks don’t exceed sixty years. It is present in Australia, Russia, Canada, New Zealand, Cuba. 60% are used to create inox. There is necessity to protect stocks and to improve their utilization. Actually, nickel is recycled at 55%.
c) Curly’on improves eating and drinking in food-processing and also in humanitarian context.
What’s more, by carrying heavy metals in the food chain, water plays a key role in pollution and a serious challenge to eliminate heavy metals pollution. That’s why we chose to focus on that special issue. Our final goal is to respect the European norms (especially the article L330/43 from 5 December 1998) that states first that nickel concentrations must not go over 20 µg/L in drinkable water and secondly that 0% of modified DNA or proteins must be found in water. In humanitarian context, our project is really necessary to cleanse water.
Health issues:
a) Nickel risks.
In particular, nickel exposure, especially in industrial and occupational settings, can present significant health hazards. Firstly, allergy to nickel is something that grown to be more and more important recently, mainly due to the introduction of inexpensive jewelry where the underlying metal is comprised of nickel. Ten-to-twelve percent of the female population and six-percent of the male population are believed to experience an allergy to nickel, caused by the nickel salts that are formed by sweat in contact with the nickel. Secondly, nickel is one of many carcinogenic metals known to be an environmental and occupational pollutant. It has been connected with increased risk of lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological deficits, developmental deficits in childhood, and high blood pressure. Finally, nickel has been identified as a toxin that severely damages reproductive health and can lead to infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, and nervous system defects. All in all, nickel is suspected, on the one hand, to severely disrupt enzyme action and regulation and, on the other hand, to contribute to a high amount of oxidative stress.
b) Curly’on make renal dialysis better.
We were very carefully about renal impairment and dialysis. In the past, intoxication problems exist on sickness people and there is still a risk for dysfunctional renal cases. We visit a dialysis center to learn about treatment and patient perception. Dialysis protocol requires a sterilized water, not to have a fever. There are regulations for dialysis center: once a month, physical chemistry analysis search for heavy metals in the system. During the last decades, machines for water distribution change inox pipes for pipes in PEX (cross-linked polyethylene). This evolution could restrict nickel propagation but our project make possible to respect regulations without replacing the system. Thus we limit the cost of substitution of the dialysis engine. Indeed, European pharmacopoeia about heavy metals includes a lot of problems because there is no complete list. In particular, nickel is never mentioned in rules. Additionally, the tests are not specifics. In this way, our project Curly’on can really improve pharmaceutical tests.
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Heavy metals, environmental and health issues
