[pct-l] Bleach as Water Treatment

[Melanie Clarke]

Dear Uncle Tom,

I'm a "germaphobe" who is sick of lugging my water filter around.  I am
also "cheap" so I really want to convince myself that chlorine is adequate.
 This is one article I found on the CDC website,
http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/publications/books/housing/cha08.htm#Table_8.4
(scroll down to "disinfection of water supplies")

The CDC table says that Chlorine treatments will not kill Cryptosporidium
and Giardia (sigh).  I saved the PCT thread about Giardia being killed by
freezing, making the high Sierra water relatively safe.  So maybe I am
being overly paranoid about Giardia, but I have personally known several
through hikers afflicted with this parasite (or whatever it is).

Could you give me a link for any other CDC or N.I.H. (or
something reputable like "John Hopkins" or Harvard Health", Mayo Clinic,
etc.) information on purifying drinking water with Cl?  I need lots of
rational arguments to clear out the irrational fear of drinking bad water,
clouding up my head.

I'll go back and review the information on the PCTlist thread a couple of
months ago about the irrational fear of Giardia.  I was too busy then to
read it carefully.

T

On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 12:29 PM, Thomas Jamrog <balrog at midcoast.com> wrote:

> Anything that Steeleye says is correct.  The CDC out of Atlanta website
> also has info on using bleach for purifying drinking water.   I am amazed
> at how little you need.  I have a dug well here at the house and needed to
> wipe out some e-coli that got in there somehow off surface water.  It is 4
> feet in diameter and 12' deep, with over 1,000 gallons on hold.   1/4 of a
> cup of bleach was all that was recommended by the water testing firm that
> analyzed the water.
> Uncle Tom
> "It doesn't work to leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps".
> -Source unknown
>
>
>
>
>
> On Aug 31, 2012, at 2:49 PM, CHUCK CHELIN wrote:
>
> > Good morning, Drake,
> >
> > I have been successful and pleased using 1$/quart Clorox for many years.
>  For
> > most water I add two drops of bleach per liter of water.
> > http://www.trailjournals.com/entry.cfm?id=264360
> >
> > I don’t know exactly how many 2-drop doses are in the little one-ounce
> > dropper bottle that I carry, but it’s a lot.  Clorox is available at just
> > about any little store along the way.
> >
> > You can learn more about it by doing a net search for something like
> > “Clorox water purification”.
> >
> > There’s a continuum of opinion between the folks who don’t treat
> anything,
> > all the way to those who do everything possible.  There is no useable
> > process that I know of that will absolutely guarantee perfect water, not
> > even boiling for many minutes.  Don’t believe it?  Some places in SoCal
> > have relatively high levels of uranium in the water.  Will boiling
> improve
> > that?
> >
> > I’ve used Aqua Mira, and it’s OK, but I don’t like the price, the
> > relatively high dosages, and the need to wait around 5 minutes before I
> > dump it in the water jug.
> >
> > Iodine is effective – and inexpensive – but I don’t feel that it’s a good
> > idea to ingest that much of the stuff over 3-4 months.  It makes the
> water
> > taste and look bad, but the addition of about ¼ tablet of vitamin-C, only
> > after the iodine has acted, completely removes the objectionable taste
> and
> > color as if my magic.
> >
> > We all get to decide for ourselves.
> >
> > Enjoy your hike,
> >
> > Steel-Eye
> >
> > -Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965
> >
> > http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
> >
> > http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Matt Parker <zerosignal74 at comcast.net
> >wrote:
> >
> >> Hello All,
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> There has been a lot of talk about Water Treatment lately on this email
> >> list. I currently use Aqua Mira as a chemical treatment which works
> great.
> >> It's light and easy to use. The only drawback is that it is expensive
> >> especially when using it for a 4-5 month thru hike. I have seen a lot of
> >> hikers on the PCT using bleach as a water treatment which was new to me
> but
> >> that appears to be the easiest, lightest, and cheapest way to go. Does
> >> anyone on this list use bleach to treat their water and if so can you
> >> provide some general guidelines on how to use it (number of drops per
> >> liter,
> >> type of bleach, etc.)?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> Thanks,
> >>
> >> Drake
> >>
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