Surviving the Wild by Joshua Enyart

Author:Joshua Enyart
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Mango Media
Published: 2021-06-06T16:00:00+00:00

It’s worth mentioning again that none of these techniques are capable of making water safe to drink and should be considered steps to increase the clarity of the water before making it safe to drink. If you’ve seen someone drink water immediately after using an improvised “survival filter” and they didn’t get sick 24–48 hours later, it’s because the water was either not contaminated to begin with or not contaminated enough for them to get sick. The improvised filter had nothing to do with it.

Water Disinfection

The terms disinfection, filtration, and purification are often used interchangeably, and since they are different, this can cause confusion. I like to define them within the same parameters used to describe commercial filters and purifiers. Think of water disinfection as the overarching term that describes a variety of techniques for making your water safe to drink. Filtration and purification are both types of disinfection. Simply put, disinfection is a process that removes, renders inactive, or kills waterborne pathogens. Filtration and purification are two techniques that accomplish that at different levels.

Purification and Filtration

Filtration allows fluid to pass through while trapping solid particulates. The pores of the filter are small enough to allow water to pass but not pathogens. A water molecule is approximately 0.000282 microns. Most waterborne pathogens are going to fall within the 0.2 to 10 micron level in size, so this level of filtration is often plenty. This is mechanical filtration.

Viruses are an exception as they are much smaller, sometimes as small as 0.03 microns. Most commercial filters that rely solely on mechanical filtration cannot filter viruses. Purification takes it a step further by removing, killing, or rendering viruses inert, in addition to bacteria and protozoa. Quite simply, it’s just a higher level of disinfection for areas where viruses in the water may be a concern. This is typically accomplished by adding something to the water like activated carbon that adsorbs pathogens and other “strange happenings” in the water.

Most commercial filters that are meant to be portable and packable fall into either the filtration or purification category depending on the technology they’re using and whether or not they handle viruses. It’s important to research what type of pathogens may be found in the water in your area so that you can make an informed decision on the level of disinfection you need.

The waters get a little muddier (pun intended) when it comes to things like chemicals, pesticides, and heavy metals that may be a concern in some environments. These just are not all that common in backcountry water sources, so they’re a bit outside the context of this book. However, if they are a concern for you, research details and claims for your selected filters and use that information to make the best choice for you and your environment.

There are two other common methods for making water safe to drink that are common in a wilderness setting: chemical and thermal disinfection. Chemical disinfection uses chemicals to disinfect the water, while thermal disinfection uses heat.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.