Plight of the Smart Bandage

Every day, people put their lives into engineers’ hands. The people who travel into space have to trust their equipment won’t fail. We trust that our buildings won’t collapse and our cars will respond to our commands. Taking these risks gives a huge responsibility to engineers. Engineers are responsible for making sure their inventions don’t pose a threat to the health, safety or general welfare of the public. They have to test to make sure their technology will safely work, and brainstorm ideas to improve upon flawed designs. They also have to protect our environment so that future generations can continue to live on a clean planet. Engineers have a responsibility to minimize the danger technology poses to people and the environment.

One emerging technology that has adhered to engineers’ responsibilities, particularly towards people’s health, is an infection detecting bandage. The bandage covers a wound like a band-aid, but unlike a band-aid, it glows fluorescent green when it senses pathogenic bacteria infecting the wound. Inside the bandage there is a nontoxic gel-like substance peppered with tiny capsules. Bacteria on the wound create a biofilm, which is a layer of microbes that make a slimy substance to protect the bacteria from the immune system. When there are enough bacteria, the biofilm starts releasing toxins. These toxins puncture the dye filled capsules inside the bandage and the dye leaks into the surrounding gel. When it mixes with the gel, the dye turns fluorescent, alerting the wearer that their injury is infected.

This infection detecting bandage fulfills engineers’ responsibility to people’s health. People may not know the difference between an infected injury and a healing injury, thus making it difficult for them to seek help at the first sign. This bandage makes it much simpler; when the bandage is fluorescent green, you have an infection. Early detection of infections in wounds makes it easier for medical professionals to treat the infection. In addition, people who can’t tell if an injury is infected tend to slather antibiotic cream on just in case. The problem with this is that it prompts bacteria to mutate in response and can breed antibiotic-resistant bacteria. These bacteria are hard to treat without a doctor prescribing even stronger medication, and sometimes there is no antibiotic that can kill the resistant bacteria. This is a serious issue, because those mutated bacteria could spread and infect more people. It may end up with not just one, but several people who are infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria. This bandage eliminates the need to put antibiotic cream on just in case, because now people know for sure whether their wound is infected. If there is an infection, the bacteria haven’t mutated to become resistant and it can be treated with antibiotics. This bandage is also filled with nontoxic dye. It is responsible of the engineers to use nontoxic materials so if the gel leaks out nobody will get hurt. The bandage not only doesn’t harm people, but it takes it further and improves upon their health.

The con to this particular invention is that it poses a threat to the environment. These bandages are single-use. After they’ve been used, they have to be thrown away. Most people change their bandages whenever they get wet, the bandage gets too soiled, or when it starts to fall off. This is a waste of resources. A single person could go through a significant number of bandages before their injury heals. Those bandages end up in landfills where they sit in piles of trash, and waste land where ecosystems used to thrive. Bandages have a tendency to end up on the ground. Sometimes people intentionally litter, and other times the bandage falls off. This bandage would take an enormous number of years to decompose. In the meantime it could get ingested accidentally by animals or get people sick with germs. An engineer has a responsibility to do what’s best for the environment so that future generations can live on a clean Earth.

If I were one of the engineers involved in making this infection detecting bandage, there are a few changes I’d make in order to fully address an engineer’s responsibilities. For one, I would change the sticky part that adheres to a person’s skin and make it as strong as possible. This would let the consumer get as much use from the bandage before it loses its sticking strength. Cutting back on the rate that people use these bandages will save resources and keep our landfills as small as we’re able. Stronger adherence will also cut back on how much these bandages fall off by accident and litter the Earth. The goal, ideally, would be that all of these bandages end up in the trash. An engineer’s responsibility to this Earth can only go so far, though. It’s up to the consumer to throw their bandage in the trash and not the streets. The last change I would make to this bandage would be to make it biodegradable. This would minimize the harm it would do if left as litter, because it would break down before too long. It also wouldn’t spend too long stinking up a landfill before it decomposed. If I was an engineer, I’d have to make the infection detecting bandage more environmentally friendly before I felt confident I had fulfilled my responsibility.

The technologies engineers create have the potential to improve or endanger people's health, safety, well-being and the environment. The infection detecting bandage will definitely improve the health of the people who use it. It will help get infected injuries looked at before they get too severe and cut down on the number of bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics. The bandage is made of nontoxic dye, so it won’t accidentally harm anybody. However, the bandage isn’t very environmentally friendly. Engineering is not only about creating new technology to make our lives easier. A responsible engineer will take into account people’s health, safety, well-being and the environment.

References:

Orcutt, M. (2015, December 4). Smart Bandage Signals Infection by Turning Fluorescent. Retrieved from http://www.technologyreview.com/news/544166/smart-bandage-signals-infection-by-turning-fluorescent/