Turning the Tide on Fluoride: Optimizing Ion Exchange Technology for Decontaminating Drinking Water in Tanzania
My research directly focuses on a major public health in northern Tanzania, which is the presence of heavily fluoridated ground and drinking water that has caused high rates of skeletal and dental fluorosis for the millions of Tanzanian residents in the Arusha and Mt. Meru Region. To solve this problem, I optimized an ion-exchange model that selectively removes fluorine ions from groundwater sustainably and can be regenerated for continuous use. The attached poster displays my three-fold research objectives, which was to (1) determine the best resin material with the highest fluoride absorbance and testing it with locally-available alternatives , (2) optimize conditions to regenerate resin after fluoride capture for re-use, and (3) conduct a techno-economic analysis to present average costs of implementation to stakeholders.
Hi, I'm Anushka, a third-year at Duke University studying chemistry, medical sociology, and global health. I'm passionate about leveraging scientific techniques in order to advance health equity, especially for rural and underserved populations.
My Laidlaw research at the University of Leeds' Department for Nuclear and Chemical Engineering is about addressing the public health challenge of fluoride-contaminated drinking water in Tanzania by developing a novel, sustainable ion-exchange model to selectively remove fluoride from groundwater.
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