Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Water Trestment Question for Paul

I'm currently treating my water with iodine because it is so light weight. What are the long term effects of iodine? What other options seem reasonable?

Everyone else, please give me your ideas too. I'm asking Paul because this is the type of question he thrives on answering and because he is in the 94th percentile.

Posted by at

6 comments:

pbowyer said...

Well....this could be a complicated answer....but here are the basics of what I just learned:

1) Iodine as a water treatment is the least effective of the three common methods...that is, boiling water is the best (kills everyting), ceramic filter is second best, provided the filter media is not full of bacteria itself, iodine is least effective in that it is considered "limited" effective against giardia, and hardly effective at all against cryptosporidium. Also, if water is cloudy, it is even less effective (probably due to adsorption).

There is little written on the short term effects of iodine purified water...(to suggest it's harmfull)....there is a study of long term effects (with prisioners) which suggests that long term affects are minimal (15 years of exposure)....but all sources do suggest that to much of anyting is not good....it is suggested that to much iodine will give throyoid problems.

Most to the purfication tablets are apparently supposed to give a concertation of approx. 8ppm (or so) iodine in the water...that is 8 times the level given to the prisioners in the long term study....thus that could be potentially bad....over long time...


There is another tablet product that uses silver/chlorine dioxide...that is supposed to be more effective that iodine on giardia and cryptosporidium. stand by, I'll look into that product more.....one drawback is that it apparently takes a longer residence time in the container to kill/work than iodine (0.5 - 1 hr or more).

Thus to sum up, I dont think you should be relying only on iodine tabs on a regular basis....it may not kill everyting (your weekend bug?) and you have to drink it in pretty high dose....

Is boiling an option? that is best...

also, to be really cautious (short of boiling) all say you should use a filter...and then add iodine (or similar)....the key is once you use a filter, you can add a much reduced dose of iodine to achieve excellent results...

PB

Thu May 22, 09:42:00 AM
pbowyer said...

I'm gonna make a quick revision to the my last answer...in that many many people for years (climbers, mountain expeditions, etc..) have used iodine as the only purfication method...thus if given the correct concentration, in sediment-free water, and a reletively long residence time...iodine along is likley a pretty good choice...if you must consider the inconvinence of boiling and/or the weitght of other drawbacks of filtering....

also, the colder the water the longer you should weight before drinking....also, if you add anyting else to the water...sugar, vitaim C or anything else, you must not add that until the iodine alone has had the needed residence time...10-30 miniutes....

Thus, Iodine isnt perfect....but with your need for weight consideration, it may be your best bet....

as to the ill affects on your health, I would be inclined to say that if you could say do some boiling once a day (at shelter fire) and at least get some of your water that way, and iodine the rest...that would be a good/safe balance..

PB

Thu May 22, 09:59:00 AM
pbowyer said...

Ok, so I have a spelling problem....

Thu May 22, 10:02:00 AM
pbowyer said...

The alternitive product is Clorine Dioxide....such as Potable Aqua's brand or Katadyn's mirocpur brand...as with everyting there seems to be pluses and minuses....this will kill giardia and cryptosporidium...but needs a residence time of 2-4 hours to really work...but, this product may be a bit more "effective" than iodine...

As to iodine, Potable Aqua's product info says not to use Potable aqua's iodine product for more than 6 weeks...i.e, it is considered a "short term" water treatmemt....thus, I still think you should be doing a combination of some boiling...and some tablet purification...either iodine or chorine dioxide....not all just purification tables....

Thu May 22, 10:42:00 AM
pez said...

I dunno Joe,

I also heard somewhere that side effects of iodine could include an increased desire to come back to work and do all the mindless project management reports for your coworkers. At least I hope that is what I heard . . . .

Thu May 22, 01:59:00 PM
Joe said...

Paul / Paul,

Thanks for the information. Boiling really isn't an option. It will take too much fuel, and camp fires have too many people around to do much of anything except poke sticks into. I might pick up a filter, but what I will probably do is treat less of my water. Up until VA, most water was from springs that were clear, cold, and did not appear to have any contaminant sources nearby. I probably should not have been treating that water.

As for my illness, it was most likely caused by a bug bite or cut. I had no symptoms of it being something I ate or drank. I feel pretty confident about this.

Fri May 23, 03:55:00 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)