Water treatment

Why do most of the forum members seem to use Iodine for water treatment and not Chlorine based products? I have used Chlorine based PuriTabs for years and have not had any problems at all, they have a long shelf life and do not need special containers like glass and PTFE(which seem to take quite alot of time discussing).<br>I first used them in the British Army and belive that if the are standard issue to soldiers they must be pretty 'squaddy-proof'.<br>Any comments? Can you get Chlorine based products in the USA?<br>

Clorine is used as the primary agent in municiple water supplies in the U.S. It was the primary tool for individual disinfectant for many years. Iodine has been proven a little more effective over the broad band of pathogens. Either is better than nothing, and certainly the only feasable carry in a PSK. In the real world mechanical filtration is becoming neccessary due to cryptosporidium.

I would think that most of us, if we have to purify any significant amount of water, will use the simplest, most effective method of all - boiling.<br><br>I always have some sort of container with me on trips of any length that can serve for that purpose (Altoids tins are a bit small).<br><br>Of course we go into considerable detail about the containers, etc for other possible techniques, but look at the detail we lavish on those sharpened slivers of steel that we regard as essential equipment. That is the joy and strength of this list.