[Philmont]: RE: Polar Pure - some observations

Jim -

Thanks for passing my comments on Micro Pur to Katadyn. It certainly sounds
like the way things will be going.

At Philmont it will introduce a logistical wrinkle - how much to give a
crew. Surely they will re-supply at the commissaries, but estimating how
much water a crew is going to treat (which will be a function of "have to"
and "want to" in addition to how much "safe" water at Staff camps a crew
will see) could get tricky. Especially when you consider that more than
once I've had to treat water at a staffed camp because their treatment
system was malfunctioning.

Polar Pure and (as I understand) MIOX are both nice in that regard - you
know you can simply treat whatever you need, even if you have to treat
everything.

Regarding the packaging, one of the members of my crew passed this back to
me. You were the "someone" in the last sentence!

"By the way, I work with selecting the right packaging for medical solutions
and devices. The foil pouch of a good thickness is a very good oxygen and
moisture barrier - we use it for some of our pre-fill solutions that need
extended shelf-life as blister packs are not able to keep the oxygen and
moisture vapor out to current requirements of less than 1% loss/year. So,
this should explain the package selection for those tablets. They just need
a corner tab that is unsealed to be able to peel it apart. Probably the
thickness prevents pop-out technique. Yep, I test the quality of the peel
apart also - it can't generate particulates in the process. I don't know
who the supplier is but I bet they weren't thinking of the users. Someone
should let them know."

- Al

P.S. to the Philmont List - while I normally cut most of a message out when
responding, in this case I went back and added the thread since it was
spread out over more than a month.

-----Original Message-----
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 18:34:32 -0600
From: "Jim Moss: BSA Law" bsareclaw@earthlink.net
Subject: RE: [Philmont]: Polar Pure - some observations

I sent these comments on to Katadyn to get some feedback and maybe some
changes. Here are some of their responses. FYI, their a sales group so
understand that. However I trust the source!

-Micro Pur is the only EPA registered & approved purifier, not Polar Pure,
not MIOX. They may claim to meet the EPA standards but they are not
registered and approved.

-MIOX instructions for Crypto are 4 hours.

-Crypto is the standard Protozoa for the EPA test and not Guardia. (this one
I am still looking into, has me a little confused, but makes some sense.
Crypto can kill you, Guardia just makes you miserable and to die of Guardia
you have to be pretty stupid.)

-Crypto is the most prevalent organism in the water according to the NCDC.

-EPA has a lot to do with the instructions on the Micro Pur packaging.

They are trying to re-think the packaging for Philmont.=20

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan and/or Brenda Thomson [mailto:abthomson@comcast.net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2004 8:24 PM
To: Philmont List
Cc: Olivia Benes; Tom Wills; Tom (work) Howard; Tom (home) Howard; Rich
(work) Rosencrans; Rich (work) Olson; Rich (home) Rosencrans; Rich (home)
Olson; Leo (home) Redmond; Karen (work) Rosencrans; Karen (home) Rosencrans;
Jim Preciado; Eric Shick; Don Smith; Dick Ligertwood; Dave Teichman; Dave
Setzer; Dan Winans; Bob Morris; Arnie Klein; Alan (work) Thomson; Alan
(Home) Thomson; Al Metauro; Ed Modugno; Evan Greenburg; Jim Bischoff; Leo
(work) Redmond; Tom (home) Mollitor; Tom (work) Mollitor Subject: Re:
[Philmont]: Polar Pure - some observations

The report from the field on Micro Pur...

Back from our Autumn Adventure trip last week and catching up.

As mentioned in the message below, our crew was field testing the MicroPur
tablets last week. We were issued 100 tablets (not enough by themselves),
also carried Polar Pure, carried water from Base Camp for our first trail
camp, were supplied with water from Base at Head of Dean, and only boiled
our cooking water.

The tablets come in strips of ten, and each tablet will treat a liter. The
strips are perforated so they can easily be separated into five pairs of
tablets. However, it is not possible to separate the pair into individual
tablets unless you cut the strip. It also is not possible to get the tablet
out of the package without cutting with a knife or scissors - in that
regard, the packaging is VERY user unfriendly. A "blister pack" where the
tablet could be popped out would be much more convenient.

The treatment procedure is very similar to Polar Pure - drop one tablet into
a liter of water, give it a minute or so to dissolve, shake the bottle, and
bleed the threads. Let sit for 30 minutes out of the sunlight and it is
good to go.

Initially, there is a strong chlorine odor and taste. However, if you wait
longer than the minimum 30 minutes, the odor and taste is not as strong.

The thing that really surprised me was the warnings on the packaging, which
follows:

PRECAUTIONARY STATEMENTS
DANGER. Corrosive. Causes irreversible eye damage and skin burns. Harmful
if absorbed through skin. Harmful if swallowed. Do not get in eyes, on
skin, or on clothes. Wear protective eyewear (safety glasses), protective
clothing and rubber gloves. Wash thoroughly with soap and water after
handling. Remove contaminated clothing and wash clothing before reuse.

Obviously, we did not have or use safety glasses, protective clothing, or
rubber gloves. I would think that the difficulty in getting a tablet out of
the packaging increases the chances of contact, compared to an easier to pop
out blister package.

In contrast, the warnings on the Polar Pure bottle are less strident, and
pertain only to contact with the crystals (which could only happen if the
bottle breaks).

We were told that the cost (to Philmont) is about $0.12 a tablet, more that
Polar Pure but less than the prices on the webpage links from a couple weeks
ago.

We were also told that Philmont would be field testing the MIOX product this
fall.

- Al Thomson

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan and/or Brenda Thomson [mailto:abthomson@comcast.net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 9:50 PM
To: Philmont List
Subject: Re: [Philmont]: Polar Pure - some observations

Jim Moss writes....

This is the link to the website for the Katadyn Micro Pur MP1 Drinking Water
Tablets which you will be using next year at Philmont instead of Polar Pure.

Comment...

Was on the telephone with Ryan King at Philmont this afternoon going over a
couple last minute details on our Autumn Adventure trek next week. He told
me our crew will be using the Micro Pur tablets rather than Polar Pure.

So, a report from the field will be forthcoming...

- Al Thomson, Troop 236, Schooley's Mountain, NJ
2004 Autumn Adventure
2003 726P2 (short trek)
2002 Autumn Adventure
2001 703E11 (Trek 21)
2000 Autumn Adventure
1999 703K2 (Trek 9, now 4)

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Received on Fri Oct 15 19:56:42 2004