Welcome to the UV-Guard Newsletter! We hope you’ve had a successful start to the new financial year and we look forward to working with you in the coming months. In this edition, we highlight how droughts not only impact our drinking water supplies but also medical procedures such as renal dialysis.
Drought affects dialysis patients
With many parts of Australia in severe drought, it’s no secret the farmers are doing it tough. Less obvious though are the issues being faced by those requiring dialysis for the treatment of acute kidney conditions.
Every dialysis patient uses between 3,000-4,000 litres of water a week for treatment to remove waste from their blood. This water needs to be free from pathogens and contaminants as to not adversely affect users. Hospitals in rural areas such as Walgett, NSW are facing uncertainty with their town water supply with the local dam running dry. They rely on this town water to fill the tanks used by the dialysis machines after going through a disinfection process at the hospital. (read more here).
In summer, residents of Walgett relied on bore or bottled water when the Dam was completely empty.
Authorities recognise that recycling water could be the answer to keeping up with water demands. They estimate that a third of the high quality water used for dialysis could be treated and reused but instead it's simply being washed down the drain due to a lack of resources.
With forecasts predicting no relief from the drought anytime soon, hospitals are seeking a more comprehensive treatment process to cater to the varying quality of water they have at their disposal.
The Western New South Wales Local Health District (WNSWLHD) said patients would not go without treatment but did not rule out the possibility of patients having to travel to nearby towns to get the care needed. In observing the fact that often these patients are relying on receiving treatment a few times a week to keep them alive, it is not a sustainable option to have them travel far distances as often as would be needed.
It goes without saying that we need to start looking at ways to get the most out of our water supply. Introducing methods to recycle high quality water across the board is imperative to make sure our water reserves can keep up with demand for centuries to come.
How is UV used to support dialysis treatment?
UV-Guard has completed a number of projects for renal dialysis water treatment. The UV Systems supplied have been designed to be integrated into existing chlorine removal processes.
Generally, total chlorine must be below 0.1 milligrams per litre as higher chlorine levels can negatively impact the health of patients. Because town water fluctuates drastically in different parts of Australia, this total chlorine target is difficult to meet with standard carbon treatment vessels. To be able to reach safe levels of chlorine, carbon vessels would need to be upsized which is sometimes unfeasible.
UV treatment systems can reduce total chlorine levels by 85-90%. They are compact making them easy to integrate into the existing treatment processes.
UV is often the better option compared to increasing carbon vessel size as it has a smaller footprint. It is also much easier to run as there is not as much maintenance versus the replacement and disposal of carbon. The only replacement needed is a yearly change of lamp.
Here is a schematic representation of the treatment process:
UV-Guard stock spare parts for all UV brands
If you're looking for spare parts for a particular UV System such as a UV lamp, get in touch. We provide insured shipping with next day delivery to metro areas.
We hope you found this Newsletter interesting. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the team.
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