subject: Are Water Purifying Systems Worth The Expense? [print this page] Every place necessitates the use of water purifying systems whether you are in a city or in a wilderness area. This is because regardless of how pure the water seem to be, there is still a possibility that the water is plagued with microscopic particulate matter that may be harmful once ingested by a human being. There are some instaces wherein the water from a wilderness area is tainted with some insects, those which are invisible to the naked eye, and may ultimately lead the person to experience diseased that are water related. Your stomach thereafter may experience cramps, diarrhea, and other symptomatic episodes such as fever. Some instances may lead you to experience serious infections which may last for over a specific period of time. This is very important as you would still need to take care of your welfare even though you are far from civilization. Thanks to the many technological innovations, there are now simple portable water purification systems that you could bring anywhere during a trip.
Water purifying systems may be evaluated according to its effectiveness. Now, there are several kinds of purifying processes from which people could choose from. The effectiveness is measured based on if bacteria, protozoa, and viruses would be eliminated.
The first one is boiling. It is said that if you boil your water for at least a minute or so, all of those particulate microscopic matter would be eradicated and therefore the water would now be fit for human consumption.
The second system is filtering. In this process, the water passes through a filtering element, which has in itself several kinds. Filtering is able to filter out bacteria and protozoa but not those infectious viruses.
In the third one, the purifier, the story is similar with boiling and the process is almost the same with the second one, filtering. The water passes through a purifying system wherein the water would react with a chemical element and would, therefore, be able to kill all bacteria, protozoa, and viruses.
For the fourth one, the UV light purifying system, the water is required to be exposed to a a source of UV light for a about a minute and a half per 32 fluid ounces. The process required here is somehow slow but it is also able to eliminate all of protozoa, viruses, and nasty bacteria. In the mixed oxidant process, the water is required to react to a salt based solution which must be electrically activated. The effect is the same with UV light, all of the particulate matter are killed. In chlorine dioxide, there would be tablets that are needed to be dissolved in the water in order for the chemical to effectively react with the water. This reaction would result to a purifying process which would also yield the same result as the others. However, this process requires a waiting time of a quarter of an hour.
Clearly, there are several options of water purifying systems to choose from and the effects would also vary as well as the processes therein.
