[pct-l] h2o filters???

[howie@jschool.troyst.edu (Hungry Howie)]

That's actually how iodine works as well.  Iodine coats the little buggers
and they pass through your system without effecting you.  This is why PUR
kept having problems with the Voyager and other purifiers.  They would
coat the viruses in iodine, push them through a filter, and strip off the
iodine.  Why this is NOT a problem 99.90% of the time (As test results
from PUR lab tests show) is that the pores of the filter element will
filter anything bigger than 0.3 microns (some go to 0.2 like the
waterworks).  Giardia and Crypto are about 3 microns in diameter, so
there's no way that they could get through anyway.  However, viruses are
usually 0.002 microns (or something insanely small like that) and can pass
through.  If they've been coated in Iodine, Voila, you've got an effective
purifier.  However, the consensus is that viruses are (usually) not free
floating and are therefore attached to particals much larger than
themselves.  If a virus is attached to a 0.1 micron partical, is coated in
iodine, and then pushed through the filter....this is where the
unfortunate 0.09% slips through.  Does this really mean anything?  Nope.
not in North America.  We've had a very few number of waterborne breakouts
in the country, I'd bet on it that you'd never need a "purifier".  I don't
ever plan on it.

I am so full of useless knowledge I'm beginning to think that perhaps I
should get a life ;^)  Later -Hungry Howie & The New Sushi


On Tue, 18 Sep 2001, JohnFayeNeff wrote:

> Was talking to a friend who did 2 months trekking in Nepal.  The people who
> started using Pepto-bismal 2 tablets/day 2 weeks before the trek and each
> day during the trek never had any reaction to the water, while those who did
> not use Pepto-bismal had lots of reactions, some very severe.  Something
> about the bismuth killing micro-organisms and coating the stomach wall.
> Faye  "Crest Rider"
>
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