The Daily Middle

From: The Ready Store

What’s there to worry about when it comes to potentially contaminated water?

There are basically 7 areas of concern when it comes to purifying water. They are:

• Protozoa – Cryptosporidium & Giardia
• Bacteria
• Viruses
• Parasites
• Particulate
• Chemicals
• Taste/Odor

When it comes to purifying water because of these risks you basically have three options.
Boiling – By boiling water you bring the temperature of the water to a high enough degree that it kills living bacteria and viruses. This makes your water bacteriologically safe to drink. One of the challenges with boiling water for water purification is the need for a heating source.

Chemical – If boiling is not an option, the next option is to use a chemical which will actually kill the bacteria. A popular option is iodine, and you can get this in tablet form. The challenge with iodine is that it has an after taste. However there are options like Potable Aqua + PA Plus which removes the iodine after taste. If you’re on the move Iodine tablets are a great choice because a packet of iodine tablets are extremely light weight and easily transportable.

MSR has recently introduced a purifier which uses the same technology that is used in municipal water treatment plants. The MSR Miox Purifier was developed in conjunction with the military. Basically it creates a powerful dose of mixed oxidants (MIOX) which inactivates all viruses, bacteria, Giardia, and Cryptosporidium. A little salt and some camera batteries and you’re good to go.

If you’re staying put and you have large amounts of stored water such as a water storage barrel; I would recommend bleach (which contains chlorine). With a very little amount of bleach you can purify a large amount of water (1 teaspoon of bleach for every 10 gallons of water).

Filtration – Water filtration is a process where a mesh filter with miniscule holes allows the water to flow through but limits contaminates. When selecting a water filter, to insure that it will pick up most major contaminates you want to be sure that the filter pore size is 0.2 or smaller. This pore size will take care of everything but viruses. There are packages likes the MSR Sweet Water Microfilter Purifier System which includes both a filtering and a purifying system and addresses all 7 contaminates.

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