Department of Physiology and Medical Physics, The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin 2, Ireland E-mail:
School of Biotechnology, Dublin City University, Collins Avenue, Dublin 9, Ireland.
J Water Health. 2013 Dec;11(4):729-37. doi: 10.2166/wh.2013.197.
Concerns about photodegradation products leaching from plastic bottle material into water during solar water disinfection (SODIS) are a major psychological barrier to increased uptake of SODIS. In this study, a comparison of SODIS efficacy using glass and plastic polyethylene terephalate (PET) bottles was carried out under strong real sunlight and overcast weather conditions at Makerere University in central Uganda. Both clear and turbid natural water samples from shallow wells and open dug wells, respectively, were used. Efficacy was determined from the inactivation of a wild strain of Escherichia coli in solar-exposed contaminated water in both glass and PET bottles. The studies reveal no significant difference in SODIS inactivation between glass and PET bottles (95% CI, p > 0.05), for all water samples under the different weather conditions except for clear water under overcast conditions where there was a small but significant difference (95% CI, p = 0.047) with less viable bacterial counts in PET bottles at two intermediate time points but not at the end of the exposure. The results demonstrate that SODIS efficacy in glass under tropical field conditions is comparable to PET plastic. SODIS users in these regions can choose either of reactors depending on availability and preference of the user.
人们对于光降解产物从塑料瓶材料中浸出到水中从而影响太阳能水消毒（SODIS）效果的担忧，是阻碍 SODIS 应用推广的主要心理障碍。本研究在乌干达中部马凯雷雷大学，利用强太阳光和阴天条件，对比了玻璃和聚对苯二甲酸乙二醇酯（PET）两种材质的 SODIS 效果。分别使用取自浅层水井和露天挖水井的透明和混浊天然水样。通过对玻璃和 PET 瓶中受污染水进行的野生大肠杆菌的灭活情况，评估 SODIS 效果。结果表明，除了阴天时透明水样的情况（95%CI，p>0.05），所有水样在不同天气条件下，玻璃和 PET 瓶的 SODIS 灭活效果无显著差异，但在阴天时，两个中间时间点 PET 瓶中存活细菌计数明显少于玻璃瓶（95%CI，p=0.047），但在暴露结束时则无显著差异。该研究结果表明，在热带野外条件下，玻璃 SODIS 的效果可与 PET 塑料相媲美。在这些地区，SODIS 用户可以根据可用性和个人偏好选择使用任意一种反应器。
