New Product Launched for Safe Drinking Water in the Outdoors
If you use nature's water when camping or hiking, you need to purify it by killing microorganisms like Giardia or cryptosporidium, which can cause diarrhea, cramps, and other health problems. Backcountry water may appear to be pure, but that doesn't make it safe.
A new product from Procter & Gamble helps outdoor enthusiasts make sure their drinking water is safe while on the trail. Procter & Gamble, in cooperation with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, developed PUR® Purifier of Water, a powdered household water disinfectant that comes in small, affordable, easy-to-use packets. This product has revolutionized household water treatment in the developing world and is now available in the U.S.
Using the same ingredients as municipal water systems, PUR® is engineered to effectively be a mini-water treatment plant in a packet. When mixed with water, PUR® removes pathogens and causes dirt and particles to settle to the bottom of the mixing container, giving a visible signal that water is clean and ready to drink.
The product is a small packet containing powdered ferrous sulfate, which removes suspended particles from the water, and calcium hypochlorite, which acts as a disinfectant. To use PUR®, add the contents of one packet to 10 liters of water, stir for five minutes, let the solids settle to the bottom of the bucket, strain the water through a cotton cloth into a second bucket, and wait 20 minutes for the hypochlorite to inactivate the microorganisms. PUR® was designed to reverse engineer a large-scale water treatment plant, incorporating the multiple barrier processes of removal of particles and disinfection. Due to this dual process treatment, PUR® has high rate of removal of bacteria, viruses and parasites even in highly turbid waters.
Since its introduction in 2000, PUR® has prevented countless cases of diarrhea by providing 260 million liters of safe, clean water outside of North America. It has been used in the Philippines, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan, Haiti, Liberia, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Chad, Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Iran, Ethiopia, Iraq, and in the tsunami-ravaged region of South East Asia, where 15 million packets were used to treat 150 million liters of water.
PUR® is easy to use, requires no special skills or equipment, and makes a great addition to camping and hiking gear. PUR® will hit shelves in the United States in late 2007.
