Water purification and such

Neeman,

Spend some time with wikipedia. Long story short, they are various types of life which may ruin your day, and which are more or less susceptible to certain types of filtering or chemical/UV treatment.
 
I will post in parts due to defect in website.

I gave what I thought was practical advice.

If not:

Bringing water to a boil kills all living things that can hurt you. Why boil? It's a visible sign that you are past the temperature needed to kill.

Filters eliminate enough of all living things to prevent illness if they are rated to remove the smallest - viruses. Otherwise, they remove the larger risks presented by bacteria and parasites (The later can form cysts -shells, that protect them from chemicals).

Any commercial filter plus chlorine or iodine water treatment pills, used per directions, can eliminate enough of all living things to prevent illness . The filter gets the large, chemical-resistant creatures, and the chemicals kill the smaller ones.

Placing water in a closed clear two liter pop bottle in good sun for six hours will render all living things incapable of making you sick. Clear glass bottles of the same size work as well. The effect is from heat and solar radiation. (See SOLDIS.)

Chlorine dioxide pills, used according to direction, can eliminate enough of all living things to prevent illness. Cost is between $.30 and $.50/liter U.S.

Electric devices that emit ultra-violet radiation kill all living things to some extent. Used according to direction, they eliminate enough of all living things to prevent illness. Their efficiency is decreased by particles in the water. They do not work below freezing. You do not want to drop them.
 
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Toxins or poisons in water are more difficult to eliminate and require reverse osmosis, distillation, or use of adequate activated charcoal (varies by level of toxin or poison in water) If nothing visible is alive in stream or pond water after careful examination, you might ask yourself why. Watch. Any wild things drinking? If not, ask yourself why. (DISTILLATION: See "Solar still." Only practical with good supply of questionable water to be distilled. Also steam from a boiling pot can be collected in cloth and rung out for drinking.)

Anything that makes water clearer reduces the risk of illness from living things in the water.

Local information about water conditions is very helpful.

It's your health or life. You have some responsibility to exert effort to educate yourself. Public health agencies have websites that give information that may be accurate. Everything that can be learned about this topic is available via Google.

Places selling things have been known to lie about the effectiveness of the products that they sell.
 
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Water Safety In Israel

"Tap water in Israel is good for drinking.
The potability of natural water sources is unknown and shouldn't be counted upon. Some areas are suspected of contamination even if the water looks and smells fine.
There usually aren't any water taps near hiking trails or even in campgrounds, except in paid campsites.
If you're unused to the weather in Israel, you should consult experienced hikers to find out how much water you should carry. If there's no one you can ask, use the following numbers; they may look like too much for travellers from more cool countries, but there can be a huge difference on that account. Remember that they only refer to drinking water, not including cooking and other uses.
In cold days or when most of the walk is in the shade, carry at least 3 L per person for a whole day.
In cool days of winter, fall and spring, which aren't really cold, carry 4.5 L.
In warm (not extremely hot) days on easy and moderate trails, carry 6 L.
Hardcore hiking in the desert at summer really shouldn't be done until you know how well you can handle that. If you do decide to do that, carry at least 7.5 L of water until you're sure you know how much you drink; it's pretty likely you really will drink it all up."
 
Neeman,

Apologies, I misunderstood your question. It was vague enough to indicate complete unawareness of what those things were.
 
I love my sawyer squeeze! Compact, affordable, no iodine taste, no boiling... If viruses are a concern then you need something in addition. Also not great for larger groups, though I have made it work in the past, you just end up spending a lot of time filtering:rolleyes:

If you're worried about heavy metals and pesticides I'm not so sure you'll fit that type of a filter in a BOB. I may be wrong though.

cheers,
mike
 
Thomas

thank you for the plethora of information
A solid base to start

Israel
All tap water good
No ground water (flowing or spring) good
I need to research how to treat ground water

Standard for all hikers big and small 3 liter per summer day for drinking, + one or two liters for cooking
Desert summer hiking more (35 in the shade)
Army maneuvers end when it is above 35 as danger of heat stroke
Commanders are punished if a soldier gets heat exhaustion
If a soldier is hospitalized as critical it is national news
 
Any thoughts on this filter: http://www.amazon.com/Military-Emer..._sbs_sg_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=128K5Q00MSHHFZBWT6HK
Or the Aquamira Frontier Emergency filter system (its a straw-type)
Sorry for the direct link, but I'm not sure how else to ask the question.

Picked up a Seychelle flip-top bottle filter which is in the vehicle BOB now, seems to be well respected but I haven't tested it since I want maximum shelf life of the filter element.
 
Banyan German Army Military Green Emergency Soldier Water Filter
99.99999 Purification Life Straw Ultralight 1.65oz 15 Microns No Chemicals
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Now you can edit out the link.
 
15 microns is really huge (relatively) isn't it? Lifestraw and the sawyer mini straw say they go to 0.2 and 0.1 microns, respectively. I've used the sawyer (although admittedly only briefly) and it did the job with the local water when I was in Haiti. As a group (in Haiti) we used the LifeStraw Family 1.0 Water Purifier where we stayed and didn't have a single issue. We were remote, but were told the local water was known to make people sick who weren't used to it.
 
ehhhhh.......that military filter is probably set up for "general use" because [sorry to be so blunt about this but] military personnel in a situation where they might have to filter their water are likely not expected to come home....so smaller micron pores are kind of moot. Remember, the basic nuts n bolts idea of the military is to kill people and blow stuff up or die trying....I know....that's not going to be popular but it's pretty much the truth...
 
ehhhhh.......that military filter is probably set up for "general use" because [sorry to be so blunt about this but] military personnel in a situation where they might have to filter their water are likely not expected to come home....so smaller micron pores are kind of moot. Remember, the basic nuts n bolts idea of the military is to kill people and blow stuff up or die trying....I know....that's not going to be popular but it's pretty much the truth...

Actually in today's military, the vast majority come home alive, even the ones seriously wounded who would have succumbed to injuries 30 or 40 years ago. So no, they don't make water filters for dead men.
 
15 microns will remove very few bacteria or common parasite, much less virus. Large parasite cysts and large bacteria are 4 - 5 microns, although a few reach 15 microns. So fairly useless except to clarify the water. Not 99.9999% - more like 0% against biological threats. .2 micron filters are quite common.

Soldiers who need to purify their water would be about all NATO troops in Afghanistan from all nations who sent such troops, the vast majority of which actually do come home, as per expectation. Purifying water is routine in Asia and the rest of the "third world." About 40% of the logistic load is water.

After a run with ultra-violet, U.S. military are back to pills (chlorine dioxide) and wheel-borne stills and reverse-osmosis units.
 
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Actually in today's military, the vast majority come home alive, even the ones seriously wounded who would have succumbed to injuries 30 or 40 years ago. So no, they don't make water filters for dead men.

I agree but those are [old] military surplus.
 
as others have said 15 microns is huge when it comes to water filters. All it will do is remove sediment. To give you a better idea: 15microns= .0006 inches which is very close to being visible to the human eye!
 
From what I read the units are for reducing turbidity. I suspect they come with instructions on adding chemical to the water from the filter to kill biological, chemicals which are less effective with turbid water.
 
From what I read the units are for reducing turbidity. I suspect they come with instructions on adding chemical to the water from the filter to kill biological, chemicals which are less effective with turbid water.

that makes sense. I've never had to deal with chemical water purification; I hear it doesn't taste so nice. I wonder if any really compact reverse osmosis systems exist... now that would be neat!

I'm lucky enough to live somewhere where I wouldn't really need to filter most of the water I drink in the backcountry; I still do just in case a deer has gone and died upstream or something...
 
Likewise I have almost always carried sufficient water or found trusted sources, or boiled. I can see where soldiers might not have those choices in many locations. Way back last century on the AT we did use chemicals and the taste was awful even after using the neutralizer tablets. FIlters have come a long way since then. But any that are effective against biological are easily clogged by larger contaminents (turbidity).
 
Likewise I have almost always carried sufficient water or found trusted sources, or boiled. I can see where soldiers might not have those choices in many locations. Way back last century on the AT we did use chemicals and the taste was awful even after using the neutralizer tablets. FIlters have come a long way since then. But any that are effective against biological are easily clogged by larger contaminents (turbidity).

Very wise observation.
 
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