Street Lamp Targets Dengue Fever

Monday, October 26, 2015

Researchers at a Malaysian university have built an LED street lamp with a mosquito trap, both powered by wind and solar energy.

The lamp can offer communities across the developing world clean powerto light their streets and protection from mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever, they say.

Chong Wen Tong, a mechanical engineer at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur and the project’s principal investigator, says the integratedEco-Greenergy lamp can fight mosquitoes, while reducing greenhouse gases.

According to Chong, the lamp’s wind turbine is suitable even at the “low and unsteady” wind speeds sometimes found in the tropics.

The mosquito trap relies on the mosquitoes’ natural attraction to carbon dioxide, which is breathed out by their human prey. The trap produces this gas to lure in the insects and then a fan prevents them from escaping.

This feature is designed to reduce the prevalence of dengue fever, which is transmitted by mosquitoes and whose prevalence is growing in Malaysia.

Source: Science and Development Network (link opens in a new window)

Categories
Energy, Environment, Health Care
Tags
infectious diseases, solar