Drink Unfiltered water??
When, after all these years, we have been brainwashed that all water sources are to be considered tainted by Crypto and Giardia?? When we have been told we must have a $100+ water system with us, or face certain death by micro-organisms?
The available scientific evidence, which is
admittedly limited because of the scarcity of
funding for testing wilderness water quality,
confirms Derlet's findings. The threat is comparable to the chances of beachgoers being attacked by a shark, according to University of
Cincinnati researchers who studied the danger
giardia poses to backpackers, namely "an
extraordinarily rare event to which the public and
the press have seemingly devoted inappropriate
attention."
http://highadventure.bsadpc.org/LA-...#search=" water hiking wilderness unfiltered"
So, who wears a chain-mail Shark Suit when they go swimming?
I personally think there is some middle ground. Common sense, check your surroundings. A lot of survival material is predicated on covering natural disasters, human disasters and everything in between. Rather than list all the methods for procuremnt of water, and "what if" scenarios, The CDC issues a blanket statement: To ENSURE pure drinking water, bring it to a rolling boil. They don't say for 15 mins, they only say a rolling boil! The 10 min rule was added by someone else. The reason they say "rolling" boil, is that they know some people will see a couple of bubbles and say "good enough". So they already have inserted a safety factor with the rolling boil statement. Then someone else prints a 5 min boil, then 10 mins. and so on. Soon we will be boiling the entire contents, and raising a tarp to catch the elusive condensate!
I would boil it for 10 full minutes (at sea level) IF I knew it was "highly suspect", sure. Like if I were doing relief work on the African continent.
Hell, I'd use the 3-foot tall sand filter, then boil, then Aqua-tabs or bleach on top of that! Cholera is no joke.
It's all based on level of risk. There is even a level of risk drinking tap water.
If I were hiking or camping a semi-populated area (meaning frequented by other hikers on a regular basis) , sure, it's to easy to boil it or treat it. You have your stove out, or your campfire going, sure, why not, it's too easy.
I don't want to drink some other hikers untreated micro-poop particles, regardless of whether they carry the crypto spore! :barf:
In a post-Katrina-type of-mess, again, you MUST do everything in your power to clean that water, Lake Ponchotrain is a Septic Pool of fetid material which has overflowed into everywhere. yuck. filter, treat, filter, then treat again, then boil...whatever.
The point being, use some good common sense. A lot of Americans, and those in the Western world have cushy life styles and I dread the thought they even have the common sense to use. But, for those of us in this forum, I'd wager we have a good enough sense of our surroundings to take appropriate measures that would give us a 99.9% safety factor.
One of the Steri-straw type of devices is supposedly good for 20 gallons. Let's cut that in half, and say 10 gallons. Let's say that we, in this forum are smart enough to dip a container of H2o from, it's source and let it sit, so the particles settle out, thu clogging the filter less-rapidly.
10 gallons of safe drinking water should get us a long way. I carry one in my pack. Cheap insurance.
I guess what I am suggesting, based on this article, is given your dire circumstances, don't die of dehydration trying to build a solar still that will only provide you with 2 ozs. of water per day, not when you have a clean cool running stream close by. Save yourself, take a sip.
If you are a day hiker or camper, it's likely you are closer to civilization, and closer to contaminants, you also are NOT in survival situation, you have all of your gear, boil it or treat it. What else are you doing anyway, singing Koombiya around the fire with a bunch of GreenPeace hippie treehuggers?
If you are out in the middle of the Sonoran desert, facing rapid dehydration, you will be lucky to even find running water. If you do, I know you will drink it. I have, (not in Sonora, but elsewhere, much less inhospitable, but thirst is thirst no matter where you are) and the last thing on my mind was filtration, it was more of a primal push, an instinct to bend down and drink.
Rinse a wee bit around your mucous membranes, pray that it doesn't sting or taste like sulfer or some other naturally occurring compound.
If you have ever gotten light-headed from dehydration, cramps, your thinking gotten a bit fuzzy, then you know what I am talking about. Look for a reasonable spot, and take a drink.
It's all in context of your predicament.
Water that is running over a rock, at a gallon per minute is safe, that's what we were taught in boy scouts. Now, they say that a pooled area of a running stream is better, (I said running stream ), because the little micro-critters are heavier than water and will fall out of suspension to the bottom. SO, drink from the top inch , the critters are most likely down below, if they are even present at all.
Use good sense, and what you have learned during your life. But don't die because you are unable to adequately purify per CDC specs.
Fact is this, you are many times more likely to contract E.coli or the like, from your hands while preparing food, or salmonella from not properly cooking the food, than you are Giardia from drinking water.
If we are going to be skeptical, that's fine, but let's spread it evenly, let's be skeptical of certain water sources, but also skeptical of the $100 millions of dollars being collected by filter makers and the information they publish.
If you were in the filtration business, what kind of info would you publish?
i am not saying go out and drink from streams with a clear concious, use some common sense and some learned sense, and weigh your circumstances.
There is a big difference between a true survival situation and a weekend hike with friends.
When, after all these years, we have been brainwashed that all water sources are to be considered tainted by Crypto and Giardia?? When we have been told we must have a $100+ water system with us, or face certain death by micro-organisms?
The available scientific evidence, which is
admittedly limited because of the scarcity of
funding for testing wilderness water quality,
confirms Derlet's findings. The threat is comparable to the chances of beachgoers being attacked by a shark, according to University of
Cincinnati researchers who studied the danger
giardia poses to backpackers, namely "an
extraordinarily rare event to which the public and
the press have seemingly devoted inappropriate
attention."
http://highadventure.bsadpc.org/LA-...#search=" water hiking wilderness unfiltered"
So, who wears a chain-mail Shark Suit when they go swimming?
I personally think there is some middle ground. Common sense, check your surroundings. A lot of survival material is predicated on covering natural disasters, human disasters and everything in between. Rather than list all the methods for procuremnt of water, and "what if" scenarios, The CDC issues a blanket statement: To ENSURE pure drinking water, bring it to a rolling boil. They don't say for 15 mins, they only say a rolling boil! The 10 min rule was added by someone else. The reason they say "rolling" boil, is that they know some people will see a couple of bubbles and say "good enough". So they already have inserted a safety factor with the rolling boil statement. Then someone else prints a 5 min boil, then 10 mins. and so on. Soon we will be boiling the entire contents, and raising a tarp to catch the elusive condensate!
I would boil it for 10 full minutes (at sea level) IF I knew it was "highly suspect", sure. Like if I were doing relief work on the African continent.
Hell, I'd use the 3-foot tall sand filter, then boil, then Aqua-tabs or bleach on top of that! Cholera is no joke.
It's all based on level of risk. There is even a level of risk drinking tap water.
If I were hiking or camping a semi-populated area (meaning frequented by other hikers on a regular basis) , sure, it's to easy to boil it or treat it. You have your stove out, or your campfire going, sure, why not, it's too easy.
I don't want to drink some other hikers untreated micro-poop particles, regardless of whether they carry the crypto spore! :barf:
In a post-Katrina-type of-mess, again, you MUST do everything in your power to clean that water, Lake Ponchotrain is a Septic Pool of fetid material which has overflowed into everywhere. yuck. filter, treat, filter, then treat again, then boil...whatever.
The point being, use some good common sense. A lot of Americans, and those in the Western world have cushy life styles and I dread the thought they even have the common sense to use. But, for those of us in this forum, I'd wager we have a good enough sense of our surroundings to take appropriate measures that would give us a 99.9% safety factor.
One of the Steri-straw type of devices is supposedly good for 20 gallons. Let's cut that in half, and say 10 gallons. Let's say that we, in this forum are smart enough to dip a container of H2o from, it's source and let it sit, so the particles settle out, thu clogging the filter less-rapidly.
10 gallons of safe drinking water should get us a long way. I carry one in my pack. Cheap insurance.
I guess what I am suggesting, based on this article, is given your dire circumstances, don't die of dehydration trying to build a solar still that will only provide you with 2 ozs. of water per day, not when you have a clean cool running stream close by. Save yourself, take a sip.
If you are a day hiker or camper, it's likely you are closer to civilization, and closer to contaminants, you also are NOT in survival situation, you have all of your gear, boil it or treat it. What else are you doing anyway, singing Koombiya around the fire with a bunch of GreenPeace hippie treehuggers?
If you are out in the middle of the Sonoran desert, facing rapid dehydration, you will be lucky to even find running water. If you do, I know you will drink it. I have, (not in Sonora, but elsewhere, much less inhospitable, but thirst is thirst no matter where you are) and the last thing on my mind was filtration, it was more of a primal push, an instinct to bend down and drink.
Rinse a wee bit around your mucous membranes, pray that it doesn't sting or taste like sulfer or some other naturally occurring compound.
If you have ever gotten light-headed from dehydration, cramps, your thinking gotten a bit fuzzy, then you know what I am talking about. Look for a reasonable spot, and take a drink.
It's all in context of your predicament.
Water that is running over a rock, at a gallon per minute is safe, that's what we were taught in boy scouts. Now, they say that a pooled area of a running stream is better, (I said running stream ), because the little micro-critters are heavier than water and will fall out of suspension to the bottom. SO, drink from the top inch , the critters are most likely down below, if they are even present at all.
Use good sense, and what you have learned during your life. But don't die because you are unable to adequately purify per CDC specs.
Fact is this, you are many times more likely to contract E.coli or the like, from your hands while preparing food, or salmonella from not properly cooking the food, than you are Giardia from drinking water.
If we are going to be skeptical, that's fine, but let's spread it evenly, let's be skeptical of certain water sources, but also skeptical of the $100 millions of dollars being collected by filter makers and the information they publish.
If you were in the filtration business, what kind of info would you publish?
i am not saying go out and drink from streams with a clear concious, use some common sense and some learned sense, and weigh your circumstances.
There is a big difference between a true survival situation and a weekend hike with friends.
