Steripen and thread contamination

Conrad:

I don't recall the thread, but two thoughts from my own extensive but totally non-scientific experiences:

1. You can fill up the bottle almost to the brim — treat with Steripen — then swirl some out to "wash off" the rim — or pour treated water to first rinse off the cap and then refill the cap with more treated water to rinse off the rim.

2. If you are truly squeamish, you can always wipe the rim with a piece of anti-bacterial wet wipe.

3. But IMO, unless you are dealing with truly suspect water (e.g. ebola outbreak in Central Africa or something) — the very little bit of untreated water on the rim likely won't do you harm.

I went on a seven-month RTW trip last year and relied on my Steripen Adventurer all the way — drinking pure tap water from Portugal to China. Occasionally. I even treated water from taps inside filthy (and I mean filthy) train station bathrooms. I never did pay much attention to the rim, and I never got sick the entire seven months.

I would not worry about a few drops of water on the rim. Think about it: Lots of people will treat the water from a lake, but have no problem swimming in the same lake. Some amount of the untreated lake water must get in your nostrils, mouth etc.

If you have a normal immune system I think your body can take care of a small amount of bugs. That's different from ingesting a liter of contaminated water.

I've got a steripen and use a separate container for collecting and treating water. There must be at least a teaspoon of water that adheres to the upper walls and is not treated that then gets mixed with the rest of the water and I have not had any problems yet.

I'm also very interested in Steripen but apprehensive about the small stuff.

I dunno, everyone has different thresholds of tolerance.

Moi? I usually take the "reasonableness" approach. At home (LA) — I drink from the tap — after passing the water through a faucet Britta filter — to improve the taste a bit. But when traveling outside US, Canada and western Europe, I will treat the water one way or another. Haven't had a tummy ache in years.

My folks? They live in beautiful British Columbia — Vancouver. The water is fantastic right out of the tap. But my folks won't drink a drop until they've (1) filtered the water through their fancy-schmancy reverse osmosis filter system — and (2) boiled the water thoroughly! Gasp.

There are, of course, plenty of people who drink only bottled water.

It's not my intention to "sell" Steripen or anything else to anyone. Common sense tells you that unless you take extraordinary care — there will be some untreated water on the bottle rim. IMO, there're probably a lot less germs there then on any bite valve after a couple hours of sucking.

As they say, YMMV. You know the facts. You know how the thing works. Should be an easy thing making an evaluation — then buy or look elsewhere.

If you want an easy solution, get an extra cap for the bottle you are using to treat your water (which should be easy if you're using a gatorade bottle or something). Cut a hole in the top of the cap. Screw the cap on whenever you are submerging your bottle to retrieve the untreated water. Then either remove the cap to treat, or treat through the hole. No untreated water ever touches the threads this way.

Thanks for the responses you guys. Thats more or less what i figured. Its funny, b/c on my last camping trip in yosemite, all of us did daily swims in the Merced River, and I was one of the few members in the group, who was spitting out any water that got into his mouth, for fear of countless years of montezuma's revenge. I dam well had a heart attack when one of my friends playfully splashed me right in the mouth. My other friends however, didn't even bother keeping their mouths shut while swimming…and they are fine today. It still just irks me, because according to the Rangers at the park, they know giardia is in their waters, but they just don't know exactly when and where. Maybe we got lucky? But yeah, between everyone that I've mentioned this to, it seems like everyone's doing fine, so thanks!

Also, besides weight considerations, is one model of steripen better than the other? I'm not as much concerned with high tech lcd readouts of battery life, than I am with compatibility/fit with different water containers.

Giardia lamblia is a single-cell protozoan. When it is fully formed, it might be 25-35 microns in size (and not hard to filter). An egg might be only 2-3 microns in size, and that takes a moderate filter to do the job. As a general rule, they can be anywhere in open water, but it is easier to find them in still or stagnant water. If you go very high where few mammals live, the water is somewhat cleaner, but you never know! The rangers were right when they suggested to treat all water as if it is contaminated. Something about an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure. It varies tremendously, but it is thought that maybe 50% of adults are asymptomatic to Giardia. In other words, you might ingest Giardia and not be ill at all. Or, you might have transient symptoms that go away. Or, you might become sicker than a dog. One friend of mine had swum in the same backcountry lake for years and had never gotten sick. Then one year swam in the lake, and about nine days later had all of the symptoms and had to be treated by a doctor. I swam in the same lake but was cautious and never got a drop in me, so I stayed OK. Giardia can be nasty stuff!
–B.G.–

Bob:

Very true indeed. Get hit with that stuff, and yeah, lots of suffering to look forward to.

But this is merely one of many risks that we take. Heck, driving those windy roads to the trail head, our van can flip over too. And yup, lots of suffering to look forward to.

We "manage" our risks in accordance with our individual tolerance. Some don't care while others bring filters of varying effectiveness (and weight). Just like with cars, some don't care, while others wear their seatbelts or drive only cars with anti-skid steering and anti-lock brakes!

But, personally, it strikes me as odd that some people will insist on 99.999% assurance with their water — but not bat an eye re. automobile risk — even after a drink or two!

We humans are funny animals.

Do some searches on Giardia. One little critter is not going to get you sick. For the last five year I have drank water untreated all over the sierra and once ended up with Giardia. I was stupid and drank water late in the season in an area that many animals had to share very little water. Rather than worry so much about minor contamination I would suggest focusing instead on stacking the cards in your favor on where you choose to get your water. Finally there is a study out on the web that would suggest that there is very little statisical difference on how you treat your water. See http://pweb.jps.net/~prichins/giardia.htm for some good info on Giardia in the Sierra.

I did my first trek to Everest base camp almost thirty years ago, and there was a Sherpa cook with assistants who supposedly took care of all water boiling, cooking, and cleanup. The nine trekkers never picked up raw water on their own. Well, about two weeks into the trek, the first trekker came down with massive symptoms of Giardia (diagnosed under microscope), and the rest of them started it on one or two-day intervals after that. I was the only one of the nine who never had symptoms. Presumably we were all drinking the same "boiled?" water and eating the same food, so why didn't I get sick like the others? It's hard to say, but my system may have had some extra natural resistance to those critters. On the other hand, maybe I am a silent carrier like Typhoid Mary.
–B.G.–

It is important to understand the threat. You body has a degree of immunity or resistance to all these bugs and wogs (something you should preserve, btw). You only get sick when your body's resistance is overwhelmed. So ingesting a few bugs will not hurt you – it may even help keep your resistance levels up.

The requirements for effective treatment usually specify a reduction in contamination (bugs per litre) rather than an absolute level. A reduction by a factor of 10,000 to 1,000,000 to one is sufficient for most things.

Now, lets look at the risk from a few drops on the thread of a bottle. There would be less than 0.1 cc of water there. But a litre of water is 1000 cc. So if all of the water on the threads gets into your 1 L bottle there is already a 10,000:1 reduction in concentration of bugs. Brush the water off the threads first, and that probably drops to 0.01 cc or 100,000:1 reduction.

But you aren't going to drink all that litre in one go anyhow, so even if you do ingest a few bugs, your body will clobber them happily. Which is why we usually say "don't worry about it."

Ahh … caution. ALL bets are off downstream from a sewerage treatment plant! ! ! !

Cheers

Roger:

There is a lot to say about keeping our immunity / defense system active. And in most instances, keeping out 99.9999% of all germs away is exactly the wrong thing to do.

Folks who backpack or travel infrequently won't have the defense for certain germs out in the wild. BUT — instead of putting on the mentality that you therefore gotta totally protect yourself — treat it as a wonderful opportunity to collect a few specimens so your body can increase its arsenal of antibodies!

In other words, if you are not used to it — don't go drinking the water out in the wilds straight. But don't block out all 99.999% of the stuff either.

Konrad, to answer your question about which SteriPen is recommended-
I would suggest the Adventurer (http://www.rei.com/product/750366)

I think it is the best of the bunch
– and if you go to battery junction.com (http://www.batteryjunction.com/energizer-cr123a.html) you can get Steripen's recommended Energyzer lithium CR123's for $1.43 each- that is a great price-

I was waiting for Roger to put things in perspective before I posted this- he is spot on, as usual.

I own the SteriPen Adventurer and I like it a lot. I took it on a trip to India and treated the water if it was at all sketchy and we never had a problem. We may have not had a problem if we hadn’t used it. I use two water bottles, one clean and one dirty. I take coffee filters and a couple of rubber bands, the filter gets rubber banded around the mouth of the dirty bottle and is dunked into the water source to fill. Keeps all the clinkers and bobbers out. I hate drinking crunchy water. I carefully pour the filtered water into the clean bottle and treat with the SteriPen. If I’m packing, the filter gets dried and used later for other purposes.

Konrad,
Here's the thread url that you were looking for if you haven't found it yet.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/steripen_adventurer_review.html?forum_thread_id=6582&disable_pagination=1

If that doesn't work, its the "SteriPEN Adventurer Water Purifier REVIEW"

I was looking into the Adventurer model and found one new at a local pawn shop for cheap. After reading through most of the threads here I bit the bullet and bought it. But I will definitely carry chlorine dioxide as a backup.

Hope this is of assistance.

Thanks again everyone for all the links and recommendations. I was originally thinking of going with the steripen classic b/c of the expense of cr123 batteries, but yeah it looks like I can def get them cheaper online. That and the classic weighs almost twice the amt of the adventurer.

I really wish i had one of these when I was traveling myself. I made it 3 weeks in Nepal without getting sick, but the minute I stepped into India, and drank house water from what was suppose to be a 4 star restaurant, I end up the sickest I've ever felt in my entire existence. I always think back on that incident when I'm filtering or treating water in the backcountry…ughhhhhhhh

> cr123 batteries, but yeah it looks like I can def get them cheaper online.

Caution!
Those cheaper CR123 batteries won't last for more than one or two cycles (if that). They cannot support the 1 A current drain. Read the review of the Steripen.

Cheers