Water purification

[Marmot]

Iodine drops or schlorine tablets? - that is the question

I know you can get iodine poisoning from too much iodine, but i also know that chlorine doesnt kill all the nasty pathogens (disease carrying little b******s) out there.

Anybody have a comment or view on these things?

Also, what the are the filtration devices like? Are they worth the expense? Are they effective?

[Digby]

I hate the chemical taste of both so I try to boil water for five minutes. That's pretty safe for the UK, but in other countries not sufficient treatment. It also means that you either have to carry a lot of fuel or use an open fire, neither of which are always desirable or possible.

Incidentally, just after Chernobyl, I was giving a talk that included a bit on drinking water safety, and the group leader stopped me and told me that taking water from streams in the Lake district and North Wales was verboten by her organisation because of the levels of radiation. Is this still an issue?

Digby

[Marmot]

The rocks in the lakes do produce a high amount of radiation, i doubt the radioactive isotopes hav decomposed enough for the levels to go down, sorry

[Geddi]

Radiation in the lake district? does that mean the place glows green at night?
i alwasy thought the locals where a bit odd

[shroom]

i usualy top up in fast flowing streams anywhere i go and ive never got ill. go up stream of the rotting carcasses and you wont get beaver fever. (unless you catch a beaver in your bottle which btw is ruddy hard!)

[Geddi]

surely if the water is clear it's fine to drink, its only when its cloudy you gotta worry

[Marmot]

sounds like something flutterby would say...

[shroom]

if the waters clear that means thers nothing you can see in it. this means eitha it is relatively pure, or it contains some toxic substance which killed everything that once lived in it and will probably kill you too. cloudy water is not necessarily bad but try to steer clear of it

[Ollie]

Apparently midges and things are a good sign; they will only drink from 'safe' water themselves, so if you see a swarm of them drinking from the same area, apparently the water is good to go :)

Ollie

[Marmot]

so you've got to the water swarming with midges, get bitten by the buggers, drink the clean water, but catch HIV from them, right

[Ollie]

.... Exactly :p