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About half of people will not ingest water when working or finding recreation outdoors because they fear that it is not as clean as the water they receive from a countertop water filter. It further appears that the other half of people rarely use any source of pristine water purification when they are outdoors because they feel that the water outdoors is even more pure then anything that they cold get at home. In the first example, ignorance towards safe drinking water outdoors dramatically increases the risk of dehydration. In the second example, failure to treat water that may contain microorganisms increases the risk of gastrointestinal illness and other sicknesses.
When outdoors, a major concern with water that is not treated, either with a handheld or countertop water filter, is that organisms living within the water will be ingested and make you sick. To be safe, water must be disinfected, which is defined as "the removal or destruction of harmful microorganisms." To do this, water must effectively be treated using one of a couple different available methods to "disinfect" water, which should not be confused with "purification." Pristine water purification, in an outdoor situation, may not remove or kill enough of the pathogens to ensure a persons safety in drinking it. To be certain that the water you would like to ingest is free from illness causing pathogens, it must be boiled, treated with chemicals, or filtered.
Vastly different from using a countertop water filter, boiling water kills any and all organisms living within it when done properly. Contrary to popular belief, water does not require boiling for ten minutes (plus an additional minute for every thousand feet above sea level.) The time necessary for water to come to a rolling boil kills most water-borne pathogens, such as Giardia and Cruptosporidium. The boiling point of water decreases with each increase in elevation; therefore, the temperature at which water boils at any given elevation is hot enough to kill any organisms which might otherwise make you sick. Being able to boil water is wholly dependent upon having the fuel necessary, a metal container to boil the water and sufficient time to allow the water to come to a rolling boil, at least temporarily.
Utilizing chemicals is also very different from using a countertop water filter because time and water temperature become very significant. The effectiveness of halogens, such as iodine and chlorine, is directly linked to how much is used, contact time for the chemicals within the water and the temperature of the water - the more cold the water, the longer the contact time required. Most chemicals come in both a liquid and tablet form. The tablet forms are widely popular, finding use within the US Military, disaster relief agencies, and those who work outdoors.
A final option for assuring safe water outdoors is filtration. Confusion abounds in relation to how useful filters truly are in effectively disinfecting water. Some filters only remove the "big stuff", such as bacteria, while others also remove the "small stuff", such the most common viruses. Filters come in many forms: pumps, bottles with a filter matrix, and gravity-fed. "Filters" only remove larger organisms while "purifiers" remove both the larger organisms and the finer organisms, potentially making them more useful in outdoor situations.
When outdoors, it may not be practical to carry a countertop water filter to obtain pristine water purification, so you might have to resort to some of the other methods in this article to assure safe drinking water.
When outdoors, a major concern with water that is not treated, either with a handheld or countertop water filter, is that organisms living within the water will be ingested and make you sick. To be safe, water must be disinfected, which is defined as "the removal or destruction of harmful microorganisms." To do this, water must effectively be treated using one of a couple different available methods to "disinfect" water, which should not be confused with "purification." Pristine water purification, in an outdoor situation, may not remove or kill enough of the pathogens to ensure a persons safety in drinking it. To be certain that the water you would like to ingest is free from illness causing pathogens, it must be boiled, treated with chemicals, or filtered.
Vastly different from using a countertop water filter, boiling water kills any and all organisms living within it when done properly. Contrary to popular belief, water does not require boiling for ten minutes (plus an additional minute for every thousand feet above sea level.) The time necessary for water to come to a rolling boil kills most water-borne pathogens, such as Giardia and Cruptosporidium. The boiling point of water decreases with each increase in elevation; therefore, the temperature at which water boils at any given elevation is hot enough to kill any organisms which might otherwise make you sick. Being able to boil water is wholly dependent upon having the fuel necessary, a metal container to boil the water and sufficient time to allow the water to come to a rolling boil, at least temporarily.
Utilizing chemicals is also very different from using a countertop water filter because time and water temperature become very significant. The effectiveness of halogens, such as iodine and chlorine, is directly linked to how much is used, contact time for the chemicals within the water and the temperature of the water - the more cold the water, the longer the contact time required. Most chemicals come in both a liquid and tablet form. The tablet forms are widely popular, finding use within the US Military, disaster relief agencies, and those who work outdoors.
A final option for assuring safe water outdoors is filtration. Confusion abounds in relation to how useful filters truly are in effectively disinfecting water. Some filters only remove the "big stuff", such as bacteria, while others also remove the "small stuff", such the most common viruses. Filters come in many forms: pumps, bottles with a filter matrix, and gravity-fed. "Filters" only remove larger organisms while "purifiers" remove both the larger organisms and the finer organisms, potentially making them more useful in outdoor situations.
When outdoors, it may not be practical to carry a countertop water filter to obtain pristine water purification, so you might have to resort to some of the other methods in this article to assure safe drinking water.
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Want to learn more about an countertop water filter, then visit Lucy Cho's page to learn more about this and pristine water purification.
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