Impressive work by Brazilian scientists. They first noted that banana peels have elements useful in water filtration systems. So they made a filter from minced peel and measured the effect on river water, which showed a local solution from an abundant waste product can significantly reduce the risks from lead and copper.

Minced banana peel was applied in the preconcentration system and showed approximately 20-fold enrichment factor and the column was reused for 11 cycles without loss in the percentage of recovery. The proposed method was applied in the determination of Cu(II) and Pb(II) in a sample of raw river water and was validated by comparison with a standard reference material.

This reminds me of how an Ethiopian figured out how to wipe out the Rinderpest virus. Controls most successful are adaptable to human and environmental variation, not to mention inexpensive.

The method used to test and eliminate the virus had to be administered locally, which meant under uncontrolled environmental conditions by non-professionals.