Mexican student invents device to detect rape drugs in beverages
Querétaro, Mexico, May 5 (EFE).- A Mexican student has invented a device that detects sedatives in alcoholic beverages used by sex offendors to rape women.
Arely Salcedo came up with the innovative idea after an assailant spiked her friend’s drink at a party.
Salcedo’s friend’s drink was laced with xylazine, a drug commonly used in sexual assault and rape cases.
Salcedo said that while her friend was lucky enough to survive after being picked up by an ambulance, many women die from overdose.
“Xylazine is a very powerful veterinary sedative, it is a painkiller and sleeping pill, and is mostly used on large animals such as horses and cows,” she told Efe.
“The danger is that the aggressors don’t know this and they overdo it,” the biomedical engineering student adds.
Salcedo’s device uses a sensor based on an electrochemical cell that can detect as little as a drop of the drug in an alcoholic beverage.
“We have already tested it on many drinks with whiskey, rum, tequila, vodka and also on soft drinks and it is very successful,” she said.
Salcedo says that while the final product has not been designed yet, she imagines it to be an accessible, portable device that women can easily bring with them on nights out.
The invention is one more tool to fight a wave of violence against women in Mexico, where more than 10 women are killed everday.
“We tend to look for the black thread in research, but it is very important to address social issues such as safety,” Salcedo said. EFE
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