[at-l] Iodine???

[thornel at attglobal.net (W F Thorneloe)]

Nira wonders about iodine and fears of iodine toxicity, especially 
over longs terms of weeks and months.

We have also had the usual comments about weight and whether it is 
worthwhile to treat water.

As far as efficacy goes, onset of GI disturbances does not appear to 
be very well related to water treatment. There are many other ways to 
get parasites and GI bugs, such as poor hygiene with food handling 
and toileting. Iodine is a very nice thing to carry, as it makes for 
a nice antiseptic solution for treating wounds (I carry Polar Pure 
solely for that reason).

For specific articles to address the concern of iodine toxicity, 
consider 
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/docs/2000/108p679-684backer/abstract.html 
and http://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/pharm/iodine.htm. These 
discuss how difficult it is to get iodine toxicity (other than acute 
ingestion of grams of the stuff) and the basic safety of this 
chemical. The safety is enhanced by waiting the full time for its 
bleaching action, taking in primarily iodine salts and little 
elemental iodine. Benefit from killing cysts, such as Giardia, 
require extended treatment - varying according to ambient temperatures.

The likelihood of hot thirsty hikers doing this procedure is low.

OrangeBug


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