First off, Cody likes tincture of iodine because it is the least expensive form of Iodine water treatment available to the average person. If that is high on your list of priorities, go for it, but for iodine I prefer either Potable Aqua or Polar Pure. More expensive, but less potential mess, weight and more convenient, IMHO. Not exactly. I prefer Katadyn's Micropur MP1 because it will kill nasties, such as cryptosporidium, that iodine won't It is a chlorine dioxide treatment, which really isn't chlorine in the conventional sense, which is unfortunately confusing for anyone not a chemist. I prefer iodine over conventional chlorine treatments.