Whether you need to purify your water for a camping or hiking trip, emergency use, or military deployments, having the means to purifying your own water is essential. Everyone knows that water is vital for life; the average person will only live two or three days without water. 3.575 million people a year die from diseases related to unsafe water according to the World Health Organization. Even ancient civilizations realized that water must be purified and created rudimentary methods such as boiling or filtering their water through sand. The "father of medicine", Hippocrates thought the body was made up of four "humors" that needed to be balanced in order for the body to be healthy. He created a "filtering sleeve" that water could be poured through after it was boiled in order to improve the taste and therefore supposedly quality.
Currently one common way of purifying water is to add chemicals. Iodine is added to water in tablet or crystallized forms "containing tetraglycine hydroperiodide that release eight milligrams of iodine per tablet adaptation to chronic tetraglycine hydroperiodide." This kills most water borne diseases. While this method should not be used for long periods of time due to the buildup of iodine in the user's system, it is a lightweight and inexpensive way to obtain safe drinking water. Since the taste of iodine is rather strong, vitamin c pills or flavored drink powder may be added to the water to destroy the negative taste of the iodine. Just remember to add these pills well after the iodine so it has a chance to kill the diseases beforehand. For warm water, iodine takes about thirty minutes however cold water takes much longer.
In case of a nuclear disaster, iodine tablets are useful in limiting the negative effects of radiation. Certain companies make iodine pills in the event of a nuclear attack to be distributed to survivors. In addition to iodine tablets, iodine crystals are another option for chemically filtering water. With this method, water is added to the crystals, given about thirty minutes to work, and then the treated water is poured off into another container. The crystals must not be ingested and they have the potential to treat over two thousand gallons of water. The advantage of this method is that the crystals have a virtually unlimited shelf life, while the tablets are only good for three months. Both of these techniques are not suitable for people who are allergic to iodine.
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