MIOX Corporation and its parent company, Los Alamos Technical Associates, Inc., both of Albuquerque, NM, have developed a "disinfection pen" for use by individual soldiers in the field. The pen is approximately 6 inches in length, weighs 3 ounces, and will generate a dose of chlorine-based mixed oxidants in about 30 seconds that will disinfect one liter of water, the size of a military canteen. The pen operates on common table salt or water softener salt, and one set of standard camera batteries will generate about 300 doses. Mixed-oxidant technology has demonstrated significant advantages over conventional chlorination for disinfection -- mixed-oxidants kill a wider range of micro-organisms including giardia and cryptosporidium, have less chlorinated by-products, and do not impart a chlorine taste to treated water. Conventional chlorine and iodine tablets are ineffective against these resistant micro-organisms, and leave a taste and color to water. Mixed-oxidant technology has been commercialized internationally with applications in potable water, waste water, swimming pools, cooling towers, poultry processing and other industrial applications. MIOX Corporation plans to introduce the pen commercially through well-known manufacturing and marketing partners in the next few months. Circle 400.

Dallas Semiconductor's iButton technology was last mentioned in these pages as a security device (Jan. 1997). The Thermochron iButton is a time and temperature logger version armored in a 16mm stainless steel package. The device easily attaches to containers of frozen or fresh foods, blood products, and chemicals or drug reagents, recording time and temperature during transport and storage. An embedded computer chip integrates a 1-Wire transmitter/receiver, thermometer, clock/calendar, thermal history log, and 512 bytes of additional memory to store a shipping manifest. Using a PC or palmtop, the user missions the Thermochron by setting start time, sampling rate, and alarm threshold. As the iButton roams, its recordings can be viewed on the spot by touching a hand-held computer or pen-style probe. The handheld also can instantly download the Thermochron data to a Web page -- a factory-lasered registration number in the chip serves as a unique address that points to a specific Web page, reporting the thermal experience of a shipment, including the last-seen posting. The thermometer measures temperatures from -40° to 70°C, and the clock counts time from seconds to years. Data is available in a time-temperature log or histogram format. The Thermochron iButton can log for more than 10 years and is recyclable. Circle 401.