'bioactive' paper would detect and destroy disease organisms

Canadian-made 'bioactive' paper would detect and destroy disease organisms
Published: Wednesday, May 23, 2007 | 9:49 PM ET
Canadian Press: SHERYL UBELACKER
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/health/070523/x052313A.html


TORONTO (CP) - Imagine masks and gowns for hospital workers that could detect and destroy various infectious diseases, or a paper towel that would change colour when it comes in contact with a surface contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria like E. coli.

The concept may seem futuristic, but a Canadian research and industry consortium is already working on developing such "bioactive paper" products that would home in on dangerous bacteria and viruses, then repel or deactivate them.

The Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network is comprised of researchers at 10 universities across Canada, government agencies and nine business partners that include pulp-and-paper companies.

Working with a five-year, $12-million grant from government and industry, the group hopes to develop a variety of products to decrease the threat from communicable diseases, food-borne illnesses and water contamination, while boosting Canada's forest-products industry.

The paper would be "printed" or embedded with chemicals that would recognize specific pathogens, and possibly other chemicals that would kill them, said Robert Pelton, a professor of chemical engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton and scientific director of Sentinel.

Pelton, one of four Canadian scientists who came up with the bioactive paper idea, said the concept was born out of the SARS epidemic that hammered Toronto in 2003.

TORONTO (CP) - Imagine masks and gowns for hospital workers that could detect and destroy various infectious diseases, or a paper towel that would change colour when it comes in contact with a surface contaminated with potentially deadly bacteria like E. coli.

The concept may seem futuristic, but a Canadian research and industry consortium is already working on developing such "bioactive paper" products that would home in on dangerous bacteria and viruses, then repel or deactivate them.

The Sentinel Bioactive Paper Network is comprised of researchers at 10 universities across Canada, government agencies and nine business partners that include pulp-and-paper companies.

Working with a five-year, $12-million grant from government and industry, the group hopes to develop a variety of products to decrease the threat from communicable diseases, food-borne illnesses and water contamination, while boosting Canada's forest-products industry.

The paper would be "printed" or embedded with chemicals that would recognize specific pathogens, and possibly other chemicals that would kill them, said Robert Pelton, a professor of chemical engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton and scientific director of Sentinel.

Pelton, one of four Canadian scientists who came up with the bioactive paper idea, said the concept was born out of the SARS epidemic that hammered Toronto in 2003.

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"One could imagine health-care workers wearing disposable gowns and face masks, and it would have been better for them if perhaps these gowns and face masks were able to tell the person when they became contaminated," Pelton said Wednesday from Ottawa after a news conference to announce Sentinel's plans.

"So if you had a face mask that changed colour or gave off a smell when it came into contact with the virus, it would alert the worker that they had a problem."

Other conceptual products include food packaging that would warn grocers and consumers of salmonella or E. coli lurking in meat or produce and "dip sticks" to test for bacteria in drinking water.

"A simple application that intrigued us right from the beginning is the idea of having a very simple water filter that you could use in disaster scenarios after hurricanes and things like that just to filter water on a small scale and purify it," he said.

While systems exist for large-scale water filtration, "what would be different about a bioactive paper filter is that it would give you some indication . . . that the water it was producing was safe to drink."

Such filters could be easily air-lifted into disaster zones to help individuals immediately, whereas larger systems can take many days to arrive, he said.

Pelton predicted that simple products like bacteria-flagging paper towels could be on the market within five years, but he conceded that others - including disease-detecting masks, gowns and gloves - require much more research and would take at least a decade to develop.

Complicating marketing forecasts is the feasibility factor: each product would have to be pathogen-specific, meaning that detection chemicals would have to be identified for each health-threatening bacteria and virus before they could be incorporated into any product.

Dr. Andrew Simor, an infectious disease specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, called the bioactive paper idea intriguing but ambitious.

"The SARS one is more complicated, whereas a dip stick for looking for growth of E. coli or salmonella from water is much more straightforward," he said. "If you're talking about field-testing masks that are impregnated with chemicals, you need to know not only do they work and under what circumstances . . . but also are they safe?"

Such testing would take a long time, said Simor, noting that the team of scientists assembled across the country is impressive but may need expanding to test and validate certain products.

"Even their group, I think, would acknowledge that all of this is still dreaming - but if you don't dream you can't start to address the problems."

Still, bioactive paper could be a dream product for Canada's pulp-and-paper industry, which is under duress because of intense global competition, a high loonie (which hurts exports), high energy costs and a lumber industry depressed by low U.S. housing starts.

"It's too early to say whether this is going to be a huge money-maker, but the Canadian paper industry is going through probably its most challenging time ever," said Peter Ham, vice-president of product development for the pulp group of forestry company Tembec Inc.

"Sentinel is an exciting opportunity, it's one of those things we need to take a look at because of all of these factors that we're facing and needing to look at ways to make different products than the industry has been historically making," said Ham, chairman of Sentinel's board.

"If the Canadian pulp-and-paper industry's really going to survive and thrive in the future, we're going to need to branch out into really different things."

© The Canadian Press, 2007