Bushcraft Basics Ep08: Water Contaminants & Pathogens

Description

In this video we look at some of the most common Pathogenic Bacteria and Parasitic Protazoa (E.Coli, Salmonella, giardia and cryptosporidium) that can be present in our water supply.

In Episode 09 we will see what filters, chemicals and methods will help treat these potential health risks when in the field.

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Video Transcription

hi there guys is Mike from mcq bushcraft here and welcome to episode 8 of bushcraft basics in last week's episode episode 7 we had a look at water containers and last week's episode was really just designed to touch the tip of the iceberg as far as water containers were concerned and just equipped you with the understanding and the mentality behind that piece of equipment and how useful it can be in the field and hopefully whichever shape and form you choose it will be a useful piece of equipment to keep in your pack I'll be sterilized water in the field if need be but in this week's episode we're following on from water containers and we're actually going to be having a talk about water and the kind of pathogens and contaminants that are in our water and the reason being is we're beginning a bit of a journey on to preparing water to make it safe to drink for us there are a lot of products out there Mark's is at that and a lot of basic methods that you can use in the field and once you understand what's in the water you can then look at products subjectively and actually start to devise methods of making water safe to drink the quality of fresh water that you find out in the field and drinking water can really differ all over the world depending on what kind of temperatures you're experiencing kind of climate what part of the world you're in and the sort of infrastructure you have around you that human beings have kind of built or encroached on the natural world and in some parts of the world human beings still throw human feces into the drinking water and when human feces gets into drinking water and people start ingesting it it can cause massive health issues really serious health issues waters like that really become a cocktail of bacteria and pathogens and it can cause some serious illnesses and in London for example back in the 1800s in the Thames people were throwing human feces into the Thames and literally thousands of people died of cholera it was a really serious issue back there sometimes collar is treated as a bit of a historic disease in this country in the United Kingdom but in certain parts of the world it's still a massive problem because of human feces getting into the water table and even animal feces can be a huge problem as well in some countries mass farming takes place because of the meat industry lots of pork lots of cattle are farmed and their waste is put into enormous silage bits and these silage pits can essentially leak out get into the water table and unpolluted waters you can avoid areas of pathogens by going up into altitude and drinking water from its source or from fresh streams that are quite high up in the mountains that are running very quickly over stone and you can also drink rainwater and there's essentially less chance of you contracting one of these pathogens but unfortunately rain can still contain pathogens and contaminants because of the world we live in today things like herbicides and pesticides heavy metals and even cars can all cause problems with rainwater so you can avoid these things and I've been to different parts of the world and drunk water from different water sources even up at altitude and I've not got ill there's even a water source behind me that's a very fresh stream it comes out of the source further up out of stone and it's a very clean fresh stream and I've drunk from this and not got ill but I have friends you have drunk from it and they've got very ill many people will watch this video in question why you're required to be a microbiologist to go out and enjoy the wilderness and go out and enjoy the woods and that's not the case I'm not a microbiologist and my knowledge is incredibly minimal in comparison to somebody of that expertise but I've just educated myself about the basics so that's allowed me to look at products objectively and look past their claims I bought a water filter not long ago and it said it dealt with viruses so it filtered out viruses it wasn't too specific about percentage but it said it dealt with viruses and in a way that could be true if a virus is on a large particle when it's traveling through filter then that filter might stop it but the reality is that most filters you buy off the shelf are not capable of dealing with viruses viruses can be as small as naught point naught naught 4 microns and most of the filters you buy off the shelf a naught point 1 microns not 0.2 microns or sometimes 2 microns a lot of the times these claims are made about viruses is because it's very rare to get ill from a virus when you're out in the wilderness or drinking from a water source at in the woods simply because viruses don't really live for very long outside of a host there are viruses like hepatitis A that can live for quite a quite a long time there's actually a very Hardy virus in some cases but it's very rare that you would get ill from the virus first of all let's touch on bacteria there are two main kinds of bacteria that you're going to encounter and these two types of bacteria are very common all over the world and they're they're kind of quantity in the water supply for lack of a better word it's really dependent on the kind of contamination you're dealing with kind of country or in the kind of climate you're in and he's going to really have a knock-on effect so one of the most common ones is e.coli and there are many different strains of E coli some live within your body and they're completely harmless but a particular strain o157 colon h7 that particular one is one of the most common ones you will get ill from from drinking contaminated water and it releases a toxin inside you and that makes you very ill it gives you flu-like symptoms diarrhea and loss of energy loss of body salts through diarrhea and water loss very hard to manage on the trail loss of energy especially if you're on your own it can be a very difficult thing to actually manage and having a water filter on you that can deal with that kind of bacteria with that kind of pathogen is a is very useful because it allows then drinking water to be ready right there and then and if you do get ill I keep a water filter in my med kit so if I need water in an emergency I can simply drink using my water filter and I don't have to boil and sterilize

which can take time especially when you're on the move you want to get out of somewhere and get get up get on the trail and get back to civilization for example but there is Salmonella as well as very similar in its symptoms and again associated to human feces animal feces can be a hotspot for that kind of bacterium and that can make you very ill the very similar effects and they vary in their severity depending on the host and the size range of that kind of bacterium ranges from about naught point two to naught point five microns so that gives you a bit of an idea of the kind of filters that are rated to deal with that kind of bacterium the filters kind of other medium in them as well like active carbon another undeclared medium that can be patented by a company that can deal with that kind of bacteria also something else you can get very ill from from drinking from fresh water is parasitic protozoa parasitic meaning that it feeds off of a host at the expense of the host and protozoa is a often described as a single-celled animal simply because it can hunt for food and excrete but really it's a single-celled organism and it's very small not as small as bacteria though and most filters off-the-shelf are very equipped with dealing with protozoa you have Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium which are two of the most common ones that you can essentially ingest Giardia lamblia will live in your small intestine and where it can feed and reproduce and when you come to see excrete waste you will excrete lots of other parasites and continue the circle of spreading that protozoa around and if it contaminates a water source or if animals are contaminated with it it can really spread quite a long way and they can live for months and months and months the outside of a host which is one of the main reasons why they're so Hardy and it's so common to be infected by that kind of protozoa parasitic protozoa like Giardia lamblia and Cryptosporidium are around about 5 microns in size so they're pretty large in comparison to the bacteria most filters that you'll buy off of the shelf will really be able to deal with them one thing worth noting is that Giardia and Cryptosporidium have a a mild resistance to chlorine and if you're using iodine tablets and chlorine to add to water to disinfect it or sterilize it it's worth noting the iodine and chlorine are not very effective against Cryptosporidium or Giardia they're very effective against bacteria and viruses viruses being a real plus that in certain parts of the world filtration then adding of a chemical can really eliminate everything if you can't boil but iodine and chlorine are not very effective against those two types of protozoa you're far better off if you want to use chemicals to treat your water and using chlorine dioxide which is moderately effective against Cryptosporidium not completely but it is very effective against Giardia and it's very effective against bacteria and viruses so if you are going to use chemicals chlorine dioxide is probably a better way to go you also have viruses as well and viruses can cause really serious illnesses but effectively they're very uncommon for exploring the countryside and you're in remote areas it's just not something that that is very commonplace and boiling water goes without saying that will kill everything there are certain strains of bacteria that aren't killed at boiling point is 100 degrees C but you're very very very unlikely to encounter them so it's just not not even worth entertaining but if your altitude above say 6,000 feet make sure you boil your water for at least 3 to 5 minutes because boiling point is a lot lower upper altitude so if you are at altitude you do want to boil your water for a bit longer but at sea level just bringing your water to a rolling boil

is enough just a rolling boil is enough when water is heavily sedimented what after rain the waters flowing Brown and I can't see through it I generally filter it first even if it's through a rag just to get the sediment out then I boil and if I boil the water I generally boil it for about three mmm it's sometimes five minutes if it's really bad and I've got no choice simply because that soil can act as like a casing so it protects the bacteria inside and if you only bring it to a boil with some small bubbles and you don't boil properly you know that bacteria can survive within that piece of soil and then when you drink it you know then you can get very ill from that so if there is a lot of soil best filter at first through a rag if that's all you have if you have other filtering methods then perhaps use those because they'll be far more equipped and then you can obviously bring to a boil if you wish to just to be a hundred percent not that you generally need to if you have an off-the-shelf water filter like a sawyer mini that's rated at absolute not 0.1 microns that would you could let you drink out of the majority of water sources with something like that and not be ill so we've talked about bacteria you're looking at about not point two two nor point five microns we've talked a bit about protozoa like Giardia and Cryptosporidium which you're looking at about five microns they're quite large viruses very very small not point naught naught four microns they can be very tiny so most filters off the shelf can't deal with that and boiling or chemical treatment is the best way of dealing with them if you think viruses are in your area pretty unlikely in my area to be quite honest with you it's more likely gonna be protozoa and bacteria from animal waste and such like that but you also have contaminants as well you have lead which is around about naught point one to 10 microns you have things like herbicides and pesticides really commonplace almost impossible to avoid unfortunately and boiling there's nothing to them because of the melting point is much higher than boiling point and filters generally off the shelf are not equipped with dealing with them not all of them anyway because they can be as small as naught point naught naught 1 microns they can be really small and they have to be to see the job they're supposed to do so a bit of an issue there radioactive waste can be as small as naught point naught 1 microns to 10 microns they can be quite large really depends on the particle size and also silica fluoride and interesting one it's added to water supplies in the USA and Australia in other parts of the world they haven't done it here yet only one part of the country or one city but they're actually doing that and that can be as small as a naught point naught naught seven microns and silica fluoride you may think what is that it's a sort of forced medication by um by whoever seems to want to force it into the water supply of people and it causes a lot of health issues it's it's not good for you and that can only really be removed by a reverse osmosis filter which is something you can install in your home I haven't needed to do it over here but most kitchen carbon filters like Britta's and such will not get rid of that kind of thing will get rid of very few water contaminants in honesty with you so just knowing a bit about what's in the water allows you to then look at products in a new light and next week in episode nine were basically going to be testing out a variety of filters a variety of chemical treatment methods and we're also going to be looking at boiling as well under certain conditions and we're going to approach a variety of different water sources so some may look really horrendous some may look very fresh and some might look you know sort of moderate like you would experience all the time and we're going to employ different methods and I'm going to show you how to use all these different products and we're going to go through how we actually sterilize water and then I'm going to show you the method that I use which is a very simple method and it really depends on the kind of environment you're in obviously the method you choose so I hope this video has been useful for you and provides you just with a bit of insight on the side of what kind of pathogens and contaminants were dealing with just to educate you on what's there so you can look at these products in a more subjective light and decide on the kind of processes you use so please see the links in the description below I've put a range of products there for you to look at and a range of articles as well if you want to further your research depending on part of the world you're in thank you for watching nore see you in next week's episode thanks again take nice