Re[2]: [at-l] Water treatment stories

[orangebug74@yahoo.com (Orange Bug)]

I agree you might repost your story, but I don't know that it is
irresponsible to note the option of not treating water. I have said
much as you have written, but I am not nearly as convinced of the
benefits of treatment as most do it. I suspect benefit lies in fresh
Iodine and some chlorine products used at adequate temperatures for
adequate time, well functioning filters and boiling - assuming that one
will carry the extra fuel and wait the even longer time to gather
water, boil and await the cooling. I know those who have contracted
Giardia several times and are willing to spend $15 for the Flagyl
treatment 3 weeks after the exposure. 

Water treaters and non-treaters both get ill and both do well. There
are many very frightening bugs out there, including a variety of fungal
and amebic diseases that have very poor responses to current
treatments. (My personal favorite is an ameoba that enters via the
nose, eats away the face and works up under the brain until the victim
dies. Grows in several rock quarries in VA. Nothing slows its steady
progression as it treats its victim as a buffet table.) Safety is an
issue, but the hiker must determine their own risk tolerance in order
to hike. Anecdotal stories of illness can help educate others of the
worst case senarios - which is valuable even when the event is rare
(such as sagas of Lyme disease).

But I take some exception to the label of irresponsibility for those
who suggest a lack of treatment, unless you are also willing to use
that paint brush on those boiling for less than 10 minutes or using
generic bleaching products.

Bill...

--- "L. Parker" <lparker@cacaphony.net> wrote:
> It is EXTREMELY irresponsible to even suggest that someone should NOT
> treat
> their water. You are playing with their LIVES. Please keep this in
> mind when
> responding to this thread, many people reading these postings are new
> and
> trusting their very lives to you, so please be responsible when you
> answer.
> Perhaps it is time that I reposted the story about Peck's Corner...


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