Sunday, January 07, 2007

Military Fashions Self Cleaning Clothes

Privates' privates are protected more now with underwear that can be worn for weeks without being washed. Millions went into research to develop clothes that resist bacterial infection:

"The new technology attaches nanoparticles to clothing fibers using microwaves. Then, chemicals that can repel water, oil and bacteria are directly bound to the nanoparticles. These two elements combine to create a protective coating on the fibers of the material.
This coating both kills bacteria, and forces liquids to bead and run off
."

Of course this follows on the heels of billions being spent getting the soldiers infected in the first place:

"Doctor alleges water linked to infections -
Halliburton contends it met Army standards

In the latest broadside against Halliburton and its performance in Iraq, Senate Democrats produced an e-mail Friday from Capt. A. Michelle Callahan, a family physician serving at Qayyarah Airfield West, recounting how she treated six infections over a two-week period in January, at the same time she was noticing the water in base showers was cloudy and foul-smelling.
Follow-up testing of the water soldiers were using to bathe, shave and even brush their teeth revealed evidence of coliform and E. coli bacteria, Callahan wrote in an e-mail to a staffer for the Democratic Policy Committee, led by Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.

(...)
Once Callahan raised the alarm, Halliburton chlorinated the water in the area where the infections had occurred.
But the water was still cloudy, Callahan said. Further investigation revealed that the water the troops were using was actually wastewater from a purification unit, she wrote."

Cost of the War in Iraq
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