[pct-l] Water borne diseases

[Brick Robbins]

On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 8:30 PM, Foot Locker <pctfootlocker at gmail.com> wrote:
> Anyhow, a child dies
> every 20 seconds from water borne diseases!

Not in the USA, especially not in the high country

>  I personally am offended by
> accusations of dirty hands or whatever causeing most of hikers medical
> problems,

You can be offended by research all you want. All sorts of people are
offended by science that doesn't agree with their personal or
religious views. That is your right. It doesn't make your view any
more verifiably true. The USFS found that requiring their firefighting
crews to use hand sanitizer almost eliminated Giardia infections,
where attention to water treatment did not.

> Plus the stuff from animals,
> dead animals,(sorry dead animal, no pun intended) old mines...etc.

The vast majority of giardia filters won't remove bacteria left behind
by animals, dead or alive. No water treatment likely to be used by a
hiker will deal with pollution left behind by old mines.

>  The idea
> of filter companys putting fear into people, is kinda like 9-11
> conspiracy theorys...

Actually, I think the fear started from the possibility of lawsuits
and the application of the Clean Water Act that requires routine
TESTING of water sources for them to be considered "safe" for human
consumption. The easiest legal way out of this was for the government
agencies to recommend filtering ALL water.

The rules were written for municipal water systems, but the legal
questions about un monitored backcountry water gave birth to the
filter companies.

> Do some other research besides the fine PHDs,

You object to research done by people trained to do it?