[pct-l] Not treating water on the PCT

[Brick Robbins]

There are a bunch of issues here.

what could be in the water.
what is likely to be in the water
what your particular method of water treatment actually handles
the risk of be infected by another person.
the chances you'll get sick if you actually do get infected.

For example, many "giardia" filters won't remove bacteria or viruses,
so you get a false sense of security of removing contamination from
"dead things" upstream. Most chemical treatments won't kill giardia.

Measurements of streams in the High Sierra yielded lower
concentrations of Giardia than the San Francisco municipal water
system, so though it is possible to get giardia in the Sierra, it
isn't likely.

The USFS, considers infection of its backcountry firefighters from
other firefighters to be at least as big a risk as infection from the
water.

A CDC follow up study of a contaminated municipal water system (with
Giardia) showed a low incidence of reported illness.

My final comment is that when it comes to issues of the "purity" of
things we put in our bodies, I find that discussions often take on all
the emotions, beliefs and unreasonableness of arguments about
religion. Which isn't surprising if you watch this
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html



On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 1:36 PM, patti kulesz <peprmintpati88 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I really don't think it matters where it happened another time...next time...when ur there no matter where there is....u never know what was there ten minutes ago or what's up stream flowing down right at that very moment....dead things yuk!
>
> patti Sugar Moma PCT 09!
> www.hikestrong2010.com hiking again in 2010 for cancer!
>
> --- On Wed, 12/16/09, Paul Mitchell <bluebrain at bluebrain.ca> wrote:
>
> From: Paul Mitchell <bluebrain at bluebrain.ca>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Not treating water on the PCT
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 1:25 PM
>
>> In fact, it went on to state that dogs are especially prone to catching
> (go figure) and then transmitting the bacteria to humans.
>
> Also a good lesson not to clean your crotch with your mouth.
>
> - P178
>
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