Severn Trent Services and its Eclox Water Test Kit received the UK's most prestigious award for business innovation - The Queen's Award for Enterprise. The Eclox kit uses advanced technology to test for biological or chemical contamination of water in just four minutes. Originally developed for tracking pollution sources in rivers, the kit has found new, widespread use as a safeguard against terrorism.
The Queen's Awards for Enterprise recognize and reward outstanding achievement by UK business enterprises. They are presented in three categories - International Trade, Innovation, and Sustainable Development. The award was made to Severn Trent Services in the Innovation category. Each year the awards are granted by The Queen, on the advice of the Prime Minister, who is assisted by an advisory committee that includes representatives of government, industry and commerce and the trade unions.
Weighing less than 20 lbs., the shockproof Eclox test kit works by measuring the amount of light emitted when water impurities react with specially formulated reagents. The system can quickly detect biological and chemical contaminants ranging from human waste to phenols, amines, heavy metals, cyanide, chlorine, nerve and mustard gas, pesticides, and many others. Testing results can be easily downloaded to a computer using sophisticated, user-friendly software. The information is entered automatically into a database where other test results can be added and a fully auditable record maintained for future reference.
Severn Trent Services has developed a special version of the water test kit for the British Ministry of Defense and there are now more than 500 portable Eclox units in service with various military forces around the world, a number seeing active service in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Eclox system will be used to ensure the safety of participants in the 2004 Olympics being held in Athens, Greece and can be deployed to provide humanitarian relief in the case of natural disaster by rapidly checking for unpolluted sources of potable water.
Source: STS
