• Login
    • Join
  • Subscribe Free
    • Magazine
    • eNewsletter
    Checkout
    • Magazine
    • News
    • Exclusives
    • Applications
    • Technology
    • Market
    • Other
    • Top 40
    • Buyers Guide
    • Hygiene Directory
    • More
  • Magazine
  • News
  • Exclusives
  • Applications
  • Technology
  • Market
  • Other
  • Top 40
  • Buyers Guide
  • Hygiene Directory
  • Current / Back Issues
    Features
    Editorial
    Columns
    Digital Edition
    Southeast Asia Edition
    eNewsletter Archive
    Editorial Guidelines
    Subscribe Now
    Advertise Now
    Top Features
    Fluff Pulp Market Faces Year of Transition

    Roofing & Construction Report

    Investment Continues for Needlepunch Nonwovens

    Sustainability Report

    Spunmelt Nonwovens Update
    Company Cameo
    Financial News
    Machinery Equipment
    New Products
    Nonwovens News
    Patent Review
    People in the News
    Supplier News
    Top News
    Live From Shows
    Top News
    Freudenberg to Present Battery Pack and Liquid Absorbers at Battery Show

    The Honest Company to Sell Diapers, Wipes at Walmart

    Thinx Launches Moist Panties Campaign

    Weekly Recap: Ontex Confirms Possibility of Attindas Deal, Purell Launches New Wipes & More

    EDANA Celebrates 50th Anniversary
    Nonwovens Insights
    Online Exclusives
    Adult Incontinence
    Absorbent Core
    Antimicrobials
    Apparel
    Automotive and Transportation
    Face Masks
    Chemicals / Adhesives
    Construction
    Contract Services
    Diaper, Baby
    Electronics
    Feminine Hygiene
    Fibers
    Filtration
    Flame Retardance
    Geotextile / Agrotextile
    Home Products
    Hygiene Film/Components
    Industrial / Institutional
    Inspection / Quality Control
    Machinery and Equipment
    Medical
    Wipes

    The Honest Company to Sell Diapers, Wipes at Walmart

    Thinx Launches Moist Panties Campaign

    Vegeto Turns Milkweed Fibers into Nonwovens

    INDA Names Three Finalists for WOW Innovation Award

    Proof Launches Reusable Period Products in Walmart Stores
    Air Through Bonding
    Airlaid
    Carded/Carding
    Chemical Bonded
    Composite
    Meltblown
    Needlepunch
    Nanotechnology
    Spunbond
    Spunbond/Spunmelt
    Spunlace
    Thermal Bonded
    Wetlaid

    Executive Talks: 5K Fibres' President Doug Brown

    Borealis, Grabher Partner to Recycle Face Masks

    Glatfelter, Blue Ocean Closures Receives Sustainability Award at IDEA22

    Investment Continues for Needlepunch Nonwovens

    Murtra Nonwovens
    China
    Eastern Europe/Russia
    India
    Middle East/North Africa
    North America
    Pacific Rim
    South/Central America
    Turkey
    Western Europe

    Sub-Saharan Africa’s Specialist Nonwovens and Fibers Capability is Growing Steadily

    Southeast Asian 5 Nonwoven Capacity and Demand Development

    Chinese Baby Diaper Brands

    Retail Disposable Hygiene in Southeast Asia and China: Growth Outlook, Challenges, Opportunities

    Albarrie Installs Stenter
    Associations
    Contracts / Awards
    Education
    Facilities / Capacity
    Green / Sustainability
    Legal / Regulatory
    Market Data
    Flushability
    Mergers and Acquisitions
    Product Improvement / Innovation
    R&D/Basic Research
    Shows / Events

    Vegeto Turns Milkweed Fibers into Nonwovens

    Rif care Launches Hemp-Based Period Products

    Boots to Prohibit Sale of Plastic-Based Wipes

    Dyper Partners with rePurpose Global to Remove Nearly 100,000 KG of Plastic Waste from Environment

    Borealis, Grabher Partner to Recycle Face Masks
    Chart
    Companies
    All Companies
    Categories
    Company Profiles
    Add New Company
    International Buyers Guide Companies
    Alliance Machine and Engraving

    Shemesh Automation

    Investkonsult Sweden AB

    ELSNER

    WEIMA America, Inc.
    Brands
    Brand Owners
    • Magazine
      • Current / Back Issues
      • Features
      • Editorial
      • Columns
      • Digital Edition
      • Southeast Asia Edition
      • eNewsletter Archive
      • Editorial Guidelines
      • Subscribe Now
      • Advertise Now
    • Breaking News
    • Buyers Guide
      • All Companies
      • Categories
      • Company Profiles
      • Add Your Company
    • Applications
      • Absorbent Core
      • Adult Incontinence
      • Antimicrobials
      • Apparel
      • Automotive and Transportation
      • Chemicals / Adhesives
      • Construction
      • Contract Services
      • Diaper, Baby
      • Electronics
      • Feminine Hygiene
      • Fibers
      • Filtration
      • Flame Retardance
      • Geotextile / Agrotextile
      • Home Products
      • Hygiene Film/Components
      • Industrial / Institutional
      • Inspection / Quality Control
      • Machinery and Equipment
      • Medical
      • Wipes
      • Face Masks
    • Technology
      • Air Through Bonding
      • Airlaid
      • Carded/Carding
      • Chemical Bonded
      • Composite
      • Meltblown
      • Needlepunch
      • Nanotechnology
      • Spunbond
      • Spunlace
      • Thermal Bonded
      • Wetlaid
      • Spunbond/Spunmelt
    • Market
      • China
      • Eastern Europe/Russia
      • India
      • Middle East/North Africa
      • North America
      • Pacific Rim
      • South/Central America
      • Turkey
      • Western Europe
    • Other
      • Associations
      • Contracts / Awards
      • Education
      • Facilities / Capacity
      • Green / Sustainability
      • Legal / Regulatory
      • Market Data
      • Mergers and Acquisitions
      • Product Improvement / Innovation
      • R&D/Basic Research
      • Shows / Events
      • Flushability
    • Top 40 Companies
      • Chart
      • Companies
    • Online Exclusives
    • Slideshows
    • Hygiene Directory
      • Brands
      • Brand Owners
    • Experts Opinions
    • Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Infographics
    • Whitepapers
    • Events
      • Industry Events
      • Live From Show Events
      • Webinars
      • Live From Asian Connections
    • Jobs
    • Resources
      • Suppliers Gallery
      • Literature Showcase
      • Web Showcase
      • Home Page Showcase
    • About Us
      • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • Advertise With Us
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms of Use
    Online Exclusives

    UPenn Grads Use Nonwovens to Develop First Flushable Pregnancy Test

    Lia Diagnostics strives to put the needs of women and the planet first with biodegradable and flushable diagnostic device

    UPenn Grads Use Nonwovens to Develop First Flushable Pregnancy Test
    Related CONTENT
    • Stela
    • Senior
    • Lambi
    • Flushable Pregnancy Test Earns FDA Clearance
    • Mitsui To Enhance Thai Output
    Tara Olivo, associate editor01.15.18
    The days of hiding a standard plastic pregnancy test in the trash are numbered. Lia Diagnostics, co-founded in 2015 by University of Pennsylvania graduates Bethany Edwards and Anna Couturier-Simpson, recently introduced a first of its kind flushable and biodegradable pregnancy test called Lia. The company’s proprietary new product is changing the way pregnancy tests have been made for over 30 years, using natural, biodegradable materials instead of plastics. Pregnancy tests add two million pounds of plastic and digital waste to U.S. landfills every year, according to Lia.

    Lia was created for women who value privacy, empowering users to choose how to share their results. The test provides users with the convenience to flush their results, eliminating evidence of a pregnancy test, and is more than 99% accurate when used on the day of a user’s expected period.

    The initial inspiration for Lia came as a result of research that Edwards was conducting while obtaining her master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania. She was trying to understand whether more sustainable products could be created, especially ones where the materials matched up with the product’s lifecycle. “Single-use diagnostics and medical waste, in general, was really interesting to us,” says Edwards, the company’s CEO. “We only use single-use diagnostics for a couple minutes, and the materials that they’re made out of—plastic, glass fibers, nitrocellulose—are all things that stick around in our environment way longer than the product’s lifecycle. Lia really started from a sustainability play and material science innovation. Can we find new innovations and material sciences to apply to products to allow them to be more sustainable and biodegradable?”

    After realizing that there wasn’t much innovation in the form factor of pregnancy tests in the last three decades, outside of digitalization, the Lia team wanted to not only create something new from a sustainability standpoint, but also to provide women with needed privacy. This led to the insight around creating a flushable pregnancy test.

    From there, the women worked to ensure all of the materials being sourced and all of the product development and innovation had the criteria set of being not only biodegradable, but also water dispersible. “We focused on materials that were plant-based, mineral-based or protein-based so we could ensure that the product was not only engineered from nature, but it could also go back into nature,” Edwards says.

    Over the year and a half it took from concept to having a fully efficacious and 99% accurate functional diagnostic, the team analyzed many different materials for their performance under dispersibility and biodegradability, as well as their performance to run a diagnostic accurately and have a flow rate that allowed it to run in the right time period, according to Couturier-Simpson, Lia’s chief product officer. “Women don’t want to wait hours for a test result; they want to wait minutes,” she says. “We iterated on thousands of prototypes, testing them not only in our lab for accuracy, but also for dispersibility and also in the hands of our users—making sure that we were providing the right user experience and the right product design to make this a functional product, desired by women.”

    When creating the design, the Lia team put a lot of research into what women go through during the experience of taking a pregnancy test. “It’s riddled with emotions, no matter what you’re hoping the outcome is going to be,” Couturier-Simpson says. “We really thought about the whole experience including the fact that we’re doing a material swap, even the way the product feels in your hand—it’s softer and a little bit more intimate than something that’s cold, hard plastic with a very medical feel.”

    Lia uses a proprietary nonwovens technology using a web made from short-cut natural fibers that disperse in water. The web is then converted with a coating developed in-house that allows the product to hold up long enough to run the test, but then biodegrade and disperse quickly in water, Couturier-Simpson explains. “We developed our own manufacturing processes using a combination of roll-to-roll converting--which is why nonwovens is such an ideal material for us to use because it’s really the gold standard here. It’s a combination of this and diagnostic and medical device manufacturing.”

    Other functional features that allow the device to safely flush down the toilet are perforations and a custom perimeter seal that hold the device together without adhesives, but also allow the test to fall apart quickly once it’s saturated in water. Edwards says they were able to essentially pierce the nonwoven into itself, which allows for additional access points for water and quick dispersibility.

    During its development process, Lia applied INDA’s guidelines for flushability as design criteria. Additionally, they used in-house toilet set-ups to observe the way the product clears the toilet bowl and drain line, and the way it disperses over flushes in the system.

    In addition to flushability testing, Lia is undergoing a yearlong biodegradability test, and the company will have updated data on Lia’s biodegradability in soil in real-time throughout the year. In addition to being biodegradable, Lia is also compostable and has earned a compostability certification where it’s proven to breakdown even more quickly than organic cotton.

    “We primarily use just a handful of materials in this product,” Edwards says. “We find it’s really exciting and innovative that we’ve completely redesigned the supply chain for diagnostics.”

    Being able to replace plastic is not only good from a privacy and sustainability standpoint, but plastic is also expensive and accounts for 52% of the cost in single-use non-digital tests, she notes. “We hope this is a proof-case in showing that you can create innovative products that are made out of materials that are not plastic, that are more sustainable and beautiful, and can be efficacious and work just as well. Hopefully this will allow more innovative processes to come to place with alternatives to plastic that might continue to leverage nonwovens in more interesting ways beyond just wipes.”

    Last month, Lia announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 510(k) clearance for over-the-counter use of the Lia Pregnancy Test. The test is expected to be available online to consumers in mid-2018.
    Related Searches
    • medical
    • flushable
    • biodegradable
    • fibers
    Related Knowledge Center
    • Feminine Hygiene
    • Product Improvement/Innovation
    • Home Products
    Suggested For You
    Stela Stela
    Senior Senior
    Lambi Lambi
    Flushable Pregnancy Test Earns FDA Clearance Flushable Pregnancy Test Earns FDA Clearance
    Mitsui To Enhance Thai Output Mitsui To Enhance Thai Output
    Focus On: Regulated Wipes Focus On: Regulated Wipes

    Related Content

    • Stela

      Stela

      ...
      12.18.17

    • Senior

      Senior

      ...
      12.18.17

    • Lambi

      Lambi

      ...
      12.18.17


    • Green/Sustainability | Home Products | Medical | Product Improvement/Innovation
      Flushable Pregnancy Test Earns FDA Clearance

      Flushable Pregnancy Test Earns FDA Clearance

      Lia Diagnostics claims it eliminates the need for plastics in pregnancy tests
      12.06.17

    • Diaper, Baby | Pacific Rim | Spunbond/Spunmelt

      Mitsui To Enhance Thai Output

      Hollow fiber spunbond materials target high end diapers
      11.02.17

      Trending
      • The Honest Company To Sell Diapers, Wipes At Walmart | Nonwovens Industry
      • Kimberly-Clark To Expand Diaper, Wipes Production In Suzano, Brazil | Nonwovens Industry
      • Thinx Launches Moist Panties Campaign | Nonwovens Industry
      • Bambo Nature Diapers Now Feature Paper Packaging | Nonwovens Industry
      • Freudenberg To Present Battery Pack And Liquid Absorbers At Battery Show | Nonwovens Industry
      Breaking News
      • 'Right' Hygiene Conference to be Held in June
      • Freudenberg to Present Battery Pack and Liquid Absorbers at Battery Show
      • H&V Appoints Vice President and General Counsel
      • The Honest Company to Sell Diapers, Wipes at Walmart
      • Jim Cree Joins Monadnock Nonwovens
      View Breaking News >
      CURRENT ISSUE

      May 2022

      • Fluff Pulp Market Faces Year of Transition



      Cookies help us to provide you with an excellent service. By using our website, you declare yourself in agreement with our use of cookies.
      You can obtain detailed information about the use of cookies on our website by clicking on "More information”.

      • About Us
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms And Conditions
      • Contact Us

      follow us

      Subscribe
      Nutraceuticals World

      Latest Breaking News From Nutraceuticals World

      Kyowa Hakko Appoints Dr. Colin Hill to Immuse Scientific Advisory Board
      Expert Consensus Statement: Diet is Best Primary Intervention to Achieve Diabetes Remission
      Choline Alone May Improve Maternal DHA Status During Pregnancy
      Coatings World

      Latest Breaking News From Coatings World

      Teknos Receives EcoVadis Gold Medal for Sustainability Performance
      AkzoNobel and Partners Team Up to Hack Carbon Reduction Challenges
      Five PPG Facilities in Ohio Recognized for Sustainability, Health, Safety Practices
      Medical Product Outsourcing

      Latest Breaking News From Medical Product Outsourcing

      Viz.ai Raises $100 Million in Series D Funding
      FDA Clears Arterys' AI Mapping and Quantification Tools
      Prometheus Group Sued Over Reused Catheters and Rectal Sensors
      Contract Pharma

      Latest Breaking News From Contract Pharma

      Catalent Invests $175M to Expand Mfg. Capabilities at Winchester, KY
      Sartorius Expands Manufacturing Site in Tunisia
      BioMoti Partners with Pharma Company to Develop Ovarian Cancer Treatment
      Beauty Packaging

      Latest Breaking News From Beauty Packaging

      HASK Beauty Enters Exclusive Partnership with Amazon
      Garance Doré Launches Made in France Skincare Line
      The World’s Most Popular Perfumes & Celebrity Fragrances
      Happi

      Latest Breaking News From Happi

      Indie Beauty Brand i-On Skincare Releases New Skin Emulsion, AI Diagnostic Tool
      Estée Lauder Companies' New Research on Oxidative Damage, Skin Barrier Function & Hyperpigmentation
      Lush Gay is OK Soap Supports Equality Florida
      Ink World

      Latest Breaking News From Ink World

      hubergroup Chemicals Exhibits at Paint India for First Time
      Award for Sustainability: Evonik Receives Platinum Rating Again
      Nazdar Ink Technologies to Showcase Latest Ink Innovations at FESPA Global Print Expo 2022
      Label & Narrow Web

      Latest Breaking News From Label & Narrow Web

      Dantex Group receives accreditation for Pico digital presses
      Heidelberg USA launches new Print Media Performance & Training Center
      Avery Dennison announces Global Supplier Award winners
      Nonwovens Industry

      Latest Breaking News From Nonwovens Industry

      'Right' Hygiene Conference to be Held in June
      Freudenberg to Present Battery Pack and Liquid Absorbers at Battery Show
      H&V Appoints Vice President and General Counsel
      Orthopedic Design & Technology

      Latest Breaking News From Orthopedic Design & Technology

      FDA Clears Anika Therapeutics' X-Twist Knotless Fixation System
      Paragon 28 Rolls Out TenoTac 2.0 Hammertoe and Soft Tissue Repair
      Cionic Expands Scientific Advisory Board
      Printed Electronics Now

      Latest Breaking News From Printed Electronics Now

      Evonik Launches New Processing Aids for PV Wafer Cutting
      NREL Creates Highest Efficiency 1-Sun Solar Cell
      eMagin Wins People’s Choice Award at Display Week 2022

      Copyright © 2022 Rodman Media. All rights reserved. Use of this constitutes acceptance of our privacy policy The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Rodman Media.

      AD BLOCKER DETECTED

      Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors.
      Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker.


      FREE SUBSCRIPTION Already a subscriber? Login