If you are like most health conscious people, you are aware that water supplies are not as dependable as we would like. Over 2100 contaminants have been discovered in drinking water thus far. Our water source may be free of some of these, but who knows which are still present?
Many reading this will have acted on these warnings and stopped drinking faucet or well water. For you only filtered water is worthy of your family or yourself. That means you are either purchasing bottled water, or that you have bought a water filter and are purifying it yourself.
The problem is, when you go on vacation or on a camping trip, you don’t want to trust the water supplies available to have the same healthy water you enjoy at home. If you are purchasing bottled water, then you’ll take along a case or two. This option will probably provide you with safe water, but it is the most expensive. Over eight billion gallons of filtered water are sold annually at prices at times exceeding gasoline. Bottled water may not be as pure is the label indicates but it would be fine for camping. However, keep in mind that if you discard the plastic bottles you use on your vacation, you only add to the environmental problem of plastics that could sit in land fills for centuries.
Some of you have purchased a gravity fed water filter, like the Big Berkey. If so, you know you will save money over purchasing bottled water. If you have room, why not pack your water filter in the car and filter all drinking and cooking water on your vacation? This would provide all the water you need and would guarantee it to be as pure as you get at home. Neither will you have the problem of discarding bottles.
If you either have a built in filter, or can’t pack your gravity fed water filter, then what do you do? A good option is for you to plan ahead. Filter more water than you need now and store the extra to take with you on vacation.
But in what should you store and transport it? The water is clean but you certainly don’t want to jeopardize your family’s health by storing it in unsafe containers. Perhaps you have heard the recent plastics warnings. The PET bottles (made of polyethylene terephthalate) used by most bottled water companies, are safe enough as long as they are not reused. However, if you store water in them where it is warm, plastics can contaminate the water over time.
Some have opted for the more expensive hard plastic bottles used for sports drinks or water coolers. The National Institutes of Health recently demonstrated that bisphenol, the chemical used in making these bottles, may cause neurological problems in preborn babies. We don’t know the long range effects on adults. Perhaps it is too risky to store and transport water in those containers too.
Few choices remain. You want the purified water from home but can’t bring the filter. If you take filtered water from home and store it in unsafe containers, you defeat your purpose. The solution to this dilemma is to filter extra water at home using a Berkey Water Filter and store it in glass containers. This would include bottles, jars, and glass lined thermoses.
This choice solves several problems. We will have the clean water we want without the problem of discarded bottles. Further we have the peace of mind that the bottle will not contaminate the water. The bottles can be washed and reused without danger to you or your family.
Possibly related articles:
Tags: camping filters, camping water filter, water filter for camping
