Monday, December 14, 2020

Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water

Below is the link to the EPA's webpage covering a variety of useful ways to disinfect drinking water for emergency purposes. You will find the tincture of iodine method of disinfecting water on that page, as well as a few others. In addition, I have added the CDC's Make Water Safe Webpage. I highly suggest printing that one out and hanging it on your refrigerator.

Environmental Protection Agency - Emergency Disinfection of Drinking Water

Center for Disease Control's - Make Water Safe Webpage

Also, check out my favorite water purification products on Amazon:

Portable Aqua Tabs

Sawyer Mini Water Filter

Life Straw!

Sunday, December 13, 2020

Waterborne Illnesses to Be Aware of

Below is a link to the Department of Health's webpage in Minnesota covering the causes and symptoms of water borne illnesses. Whether you are enjoying the great outdoors or trapped within the grips of a disaster scenario, make sure to sanitize your water thoroughly. You DO NOT want to become prey to these nasty little vermin!

Minnesota Department of health - Causes and Symptoms of Waterborne Illness: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/waterborne/basics.html

Saturday, December 12, 2020

Disinfecting Water with Clorox Splash-less Bleach

There is a rumor flying around the internet (especially on social media) that the Splash-less brand of Clorox bleach does not disinfect. That is simply not true. The rumor comes from the fact that this brand of bleach had not passed EPA testing before it hit the market. That was a long time ago. Since then, Clorox's Splash-less brand of bleach has passed the EPA's standards for disinfecting and granted the Clorox company the right to claim it as a disinfecting solution. You can watch WUSA9's video below for more information.

To disinfect suspect water in an emergency:

1. Strain the water through a handkerchief or bandana to filter out any dirt and debris.

2. Add two drops of bleach to every quart of water, or eight drops of bleach per every gallon of water.

3. Stir and let sit for 30 minutes.

4. Use normally.

There should be a slight chlorine odor to the water when you are done. This is a good thing! It means that you did it right and the water is now safe to drink. If you don't like the smell, leave it sit for a little longer and the smell will dissipate altogether.