Re: [pct-l] Chorine water

[Brick Robbins <brick@fastpack.com>]

At 10:21 PM 6/11/00 , CharlieJones@aol.com wrote:

>A friend and I hiked the JMT in '96 using chlorine crystals to purify 3 
>gallons of water (for the evening meal, breakfast and water bottles before 
>hitting the trail again) a day. The hydrogen peroxide is used to neutralize 
>the chlorine taste. This process is used in Third World Countries for water 
>purification.

The Centers for Disease Control say that chlorine is not reliable for killing Giardia, though it works well for bacteria, which is much more of a problem in 3rd world countries. 

IMHO, the advertised Giardia threat is much greater than the real one, so anecdotal "I used this and didn't get sick.." recommendations probably aren't a very good basis for accurate decisions, as the likely hood of the teller not being exposed to, or being resistant to Giardia are pretty high.

Reference
http://www.gorp.com/gorp/health/WTRFLFAQ.HTM

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