JAMAICA-BASED LifeSavers, the entity which has developed personal care wipes that can detect if you are unwell, has partnered with Brazil-based Fitesa, one of the world's largest and most innovative non-woven manufacturers, for the co-development of high-performance non-wovens capable of detecting irregular health markers.

Under the deal, the two companies are collaborating to incorporate LifeSavers' award-winning technology into Fitesa's substrates which are used to produce items such as wipes. Fitesa sells the base products that make wipes, diapers, and sanitary napkins to some of the world's biggest producers of the items, including Proctor and Gamble which produces Pampers, and Clorox which makes disinfecting wipes.

"The collaboration includes LifeSavers' technology being intertwined in Fitesa's material so that we can actually go into the marketplace and engage Fitesa's customers in 150 countries across the world for wipes and other personal hygiene products that can tell if you are unwell," Georgia Crawford, team leader for LifeSavers told the Jamaica Observer.

Crawford said companies such as MedLine and Clorox have approached LifeSavers to incorporate its technology into their products, but they will now be able to buy from Fitesa and LifeSavers.

"We are developing other products as a consequence of this as well. We are moving into additional research and development because we want to go into products that detect issues with the heart, liver and kidney," Crawford added.

She said the company has gone into products that also detect urinary tract infections.

LifeSavers is a Jamaican company recently awarded the prestigious IDEA Short-Life Product Achievement Award for a line of wipes that signal abnormal glucose levels in the urine (a predictor of diabetes).