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http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Portable_Microbiology_Laboratory
Although most countries are on track to meet the Millenium Development Goal target for providing access to drinking water, recent studies show that even sources that are considered improved are frequently contaminated with E. coli and other fecal indicator bacteria. Current methods for testing the microbial quality of water are expensive and require specialized equipment and trained personnel.
The Portable Microbiology Lab, or PML, was developed to dramatically reduce the cost and equipment needed for the field detection of bacteria in water. The kit uses off-the-shelf Petrifilm growth media from the food safety industry and a simplified version of the rigorously tested Colilert reagent system.
- To prevent bias and be consistent. Different people manually count colonies differently, making comparative data difficult
- Trainability. Complex protocols of how to determine what is considered a colony and of what time are difficult to teach to non-lab techs
- Speed. Reading a film with many colonies is a slow and error-prone process.