Re: My two cents on MMS

Hello Tony,

A comment on water purification...

Silver has the potential to keep purified water pure during storage. However, there is an issue with purifying "wilderness" water.

If you have spent any time in the wilderness you will know that the quality of water found there varies. Some areas require very little purification, and other areas require a lot.

You should also be aware that a water born illness can be life threatening. Wilderness adventure usually involves physical exertion, and an extreme case of diarrhea can drain the strength from even the most healthy and strong, and do so very quickly. In many situations you may be several days from help, and the problem escalates from a minor concern to a full blown emergency.

I use chlorine dioxide for water purification because I can measure the concentration in the water that is being purified. I collect water to be purified, then mix up a chlorine dioxide concentration based on my "best guess" as to what should be needed to purify this water. I add the chlorine dioxide to the water, mix, and let it sit for a few minutes. I then take a test strip and measure the chlorine dioxide left in the solution.

If there is a high pathogen load, all of the chlorine dioxide will be used up. If the load is low, I end up with nearly as much chlorine dioxide as I started with. The key is that I have immediate feedback, and this allows me to adjust the concentration as needed.

Several times I have been amazed to find that what appeared to be generally clean water actually had quite a pathogen load in it requiring additional chlorine dioxide to purify it.

Sometimes wilderness streams pick up an off taste to the water. An additional benefit of using chlorine dioxide is that it removes this off taste.

While the main benefit of using chlorine dioxide is that you can measure and adjust according to the microbial load, another benefit is that it is very easy to get rid of any excess chlorine dioxide, should you put a little too much into the water. You simply add an antioxidant, like ascorbic acid, or simply expose it to daylight. With very little effort you end up with very good tasting water that you know, through simple testing, that it is pure.

In an emergency, the drinking water may become contaminated with sewage. Chlorine dioxide is also used to purify waste water, so even though the water looks clear, it could contain a very high microbial load. Using the test strips, this contamination could be identified and the water purified through the addition of more chlorine dioxide.

In addition, the ability of chlorine dioxide to purify sewage and eliminate odors could make a disaster condition more tolerable, and much safer from a health perspective.

I have nothing against silver, but for unknown water purification I will continue to use chlorine dioxide, and recommend its use to others.

Tom Tweet