So for emergency situations or operations in remote areas with no water resupply available, troops resort to disinfecting surface water they find with iodine tablets or purifying it with charcoal-based filtering systems. The problem, Bettin said, is that current military-issued purifiers work slowly and may not be as effect as possible.
Commercial water-purification systems have become popular among hikers and campers, and outdoor magazines and catalogs tout their benefits. But until recently, the military hadnt systematically tested these systems and wasnt able to tell deploying units which ones might best suit their needs, Bettin said.
To come up with an answer, the Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine launched an 18-month scientific study of 68 commercial, off-the-shelf water-purification systems.
As they evaluated these systems, Bettin and his staff quickly realized that theres no one-size-fits-all answer to military water-purification requirements. We had planned to pick one product to recommend, but because of the different scenarios units operate under, there was no one solution for every unit, he said.
Instead, they came up with an online decision tool units can use to select the best water purification system for their exact circumstances. That tool, posted on the centers Web site (see link below article), helps units evaluate what might work best for them and what doesnt work at all, he said. We found that some (commercial) claims were groundless, and we were able to weed out the non-performers, he said.
http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/wpd/Default.aspx
Commercial water-purification systems have become popular among hikers and campers, and outdoor magazines and catalogs tout their benefits. But until recently, the military hadnt systematically tested these systems and wasnt able to tell deploying units which ones might best suit their needs, Bettin said.
To come up with an answer, the Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine launched an 18-month scientific study of 68 commercial, off-the-shelf water-purification systems.
As they evaluated these systems, Bettin and his staff quickly realized that theres no one-size-fits-all answer to military water-purification requirements. We had planned to pick one product to recommend, but because of the different scenarios units operate under, there was no one solution for every unit, he said.
Instead, they came up with an online decision tool units can use to select the best water purification system for their exact circumstances. That tool, posted on the centers Web site (see link below article), helps units evaluate what might work best for them and what doesnt work at all, he said. We found that some (commercial) claims were groundless, and we were able to weed out the non-performers, he said.
http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/wpd/Default.aspx
