Pitt grad invents filter to remove arsenic in water

The University of Pittsburgh is celebrating Abul Hussam, the 1982 Pitt graduate who won the… The University of Pittsburgh is celebrating Abul Hussam, the 1982 Pitt graduate who won the $1 million first place Grainger Award for the invention of a filter that removes arsenic from drinking water.

Hussam developed the SONO filter, a device sorely needed in his native Bangladesh. The SONO is a water purifier that uses a succession of sand, wood, brick and iron composite filters to eliminate the naturally occurring arsenic in well water. As of 2007, 30,000 filters have been distributed throughout the country, 20,000 of them for free.

“We found arsenic in almost the whole neighborhood,” Hussam said for an interview with The Pitt Chronicle. “In the city [of Kushtia] almost 60 percent of the wells were contaminated.” Hussam explained how he started his project by testing the levels of arsenic in Bangladesh wells, which occurs in much higher quantities than is safe for consumption.

Arsenic poisoning has been high in Southeast Asian countries in recent years, and can lead to cancer, organ failure and death, especially among the poor and children. Many of the tested wells contained anywhere from three to 40 times the amount of arsenic that is considered safe.

Hussam said he directly used what he learned at Pitt to measure the levels of arsenic and develop the simple and powerful filter.

“Measurement was the key to developing an effective filter,” he said in the Chronicle. “The analytical chemistry that I learned with [my doctoral advisor] Professor Johannes Coetzee was absolutely essential. Without that I couldn’t have done any of this.”

“I’m not shocked Abul created the SONO filter because he certainly had the ability,” Coetzee, who retired from Pitt in 1989, said in the Chronicle. “His filter is a major contribution to science and to the welfare of the Bangladeshis. I think he can be a role model for young chemists.”

Hussam graduated from Pitt in 1982 with his doctoral degree in analytical chemistry after earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry from the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh. He is currently an associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry at George Mason University.

“The University of Pittsburgh takes great pride in the news that alumnus Abul Hussam was selected as the first-place winner in the 2007 Grainger Challenge Prize for Sustainability,” Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg said for the Chronicle. “His design