The Power of a Single AA Battery
Blogged by: Rebecca
Our world has many issues that seem unsolvable, but this is not the case.
Many people are unaware of the severity of zinc deficiencies in our global communities, but the effects are substantial. Every year 800,000 people die, due to a lack of zinc in their diets, and 17.3% of the world’s population is at risk of inadequate zinc intake.
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Zinc deficiencies are common in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Studies show a lack of zinc initiatives in these regions because of high costs, low zinc productions nationally, very few national surveys to indicate the severity of the problem, and also the amount of absorbable zinc in a country's national food supply.
Zinc is a chemical element which can be found in batteries. But not only does zinc enable us to power home electronics and produce energy, but it provides health benefits that can save thousands of lives. Zinc has many positive benefactors to one's health that include…
- Prevention of diarrhea
- Enhances physical growth and development
- Aids brain development
- Protects body from illness
- Fights infections
- Enhances immune system
- Reduce the duration and severity of common colds
So how can you help? A zinc making company located in British Columbia, Canada called Trek, has created battery drop-off depots across Canada, where your batteries will be recycled into supplements with help from UNICEF. Vice-president of Trek, Doug Horswill says, “One and a half billion children die annually from diarrhea or complications related to it, one-third, or 450,000, of those children could be saved if treated with zinc and oral rehydration salts”. For every AA battery collected and donated, 6 lives are saved. On average, a household is using over 50 batteries at one time. If you were to save these used batteries and donate them, you
could be responsible for saving over 300 lives and keeping batteries out of landfills.
Overall, one AA battery is a simple solution to a major problem and as a community we can make immense change, save many lives, and end a major branch of the world's health crisis.
References
( picture) N. (2016, November 27). Zinc Drive at LPB: Donate Your Old Batteries. Retrieved
Watson, K. (2017, June 14) Zinc Deficiency. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health
Wessels, K.R & Brown, K. H. (2012). Estimating the Global Prevalence of Zinc Deficiency:
Results Based on Zinc Availability in National Food Supplies and the Prevalence of
Stunting. Retrieved from https:??www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3510072/
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