Label wins Icsid design prize

The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) has awarded the 2013-2014 World Design Impact Prize to the ABC Syringe, which features a color changing label at the heart of its design.

The International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (Icsid) has awarded the 2013-2014 World Design Impact Prize to the ABC Syringe, which features a color changing label at the heart of its design

The ABC Syringe project combines colorimetric inks and modified atmosphere packaging. Inside a nitrogen-filled blister pack the syringe label remains deactivated. Exposure to air, by opening or pack failure, activates an o-crestholphthalein coated label, which rapidly absorbs carbon dioxide found in the atmosphere. As a result, the label turns from colorless to red in 60 seconds, providing a window for the syringe to be used in a procedure.

Developed by Dr David Swann from the University of Huddersfield in the UK, the prize was awarded to the A Behaviour Chance (ABC) Syringe during an awards ceremony at the World Design Capital International Design Gala in Cape Town, South Africa on February 28.

The patented innovation triggers people's innate sensitivity to risk through a persuasive color change via a label which turns red once it has been exposed to carbon dioxide, or more simply, once it has been taken out of its sealed and sterilized packaging, so warning literate and illiterate patients of prior use – a strategy validated on the streets of Mumbai with 100 percent efficacy to date. Impact estimation indicates that by year five, the ABC Syringe could prevent 700,000 unsafe injections, save 6.5 million life years and 130 million USD in medical costs in India alone.

In 2008, the World Health Organisation calculated the global incidences of diseases transmitted through unsafe injection practices. In total, these unsafe injections led to a reported 1.3 million deaths, 340,000 HIV infections, 15 million Hepatitis B virus infections, one million Hepatitis C virus infections, three million bacterial infections and 850,000 injection site abscesses.

Icsid said that there are numerous issues related to the unsafe usage of syringes, but rather than create a new type of syringe, where a single £0.03 device can take years to get FDA approval and millions to produce, the ABC Syringe is an intelligent label that provides an easy way to recognize which syringes have been used versus those that have not, and costs closer to £30,000 to create and takes only three months for FDA approval. It is also a universal communication tool regardless of literacy.

Established by Icsid in 2010, the World Design Impact Prize is an award that recognizes excellence and diverse ways of addressing societal challenges.

Dr Brandon Gien, president of Icsid, said: ‘By recognizing projects such as the ones submitted for the World Design Impact Prize, Icsid can promote the ever expanding field of industrial design, which drives such recent practices as social entrepreneurship, micro financing and humanitarian design, as well as showcases the value of the design and its impact on systems and experiences.’