Water storage BAD? Horrible realization for survivalists.. :(

[redeyeguy]

We're all survivalists here. We have supplies waiting to be used when SHTF, or any disaster scenario in general. Well, I just found out that bottled water, whether glass or plastic, is BAD. This runs afoul with my plan to store water for survival. Here's some research I've compiled:



Small doses of antimony can make you feel ill and depressed. Larger quantities can cause violent vomiting and even death. The study stressed that amounts of antimony were well below official recommended levels. But it also discovered that the levels almost doubled when the bottles were stored for three months.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-379624/The-poison-lurking-plastic-water-bottle.html




The observation that Sb concentrations increased significantly over time in one of the brands stored in glass bottles shows that glass bottles, like their PET(E) counterparts, show variable reactivity. The extent of the contamination of bottled waters caused by leaching from glass, however, appears generally to be dwarfed by the extent of leaching of Sb from PET(E).
Concludes that although both glass and plastic (PET) are subject to chemical leaching, plastic tends to release more antimony (Sb) into water than glass does.
http://www.elmvalefoundation.org/publications/A55.pdf




Antimony and many of its compounds are toxic, and the effects of antimony poisoning are similar to arsenic poisoning. Inhalation of antimony dust is harmful and in certain cases may be fatal; in small doses, antimony causes headaches, dizziness, and depression. Larger doses such as prolonged skin contact may cause dermatitis; otherwise it can damage the kidneys and the liver, causing violent and frequent vomiting, and will lead to death in a few days.
Wikipedia article on the harmful effects of antimony.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimony#Precautions




Glass bottles, however, leach a much longer list of elements into the water, with Ce (19x higher median in glass than in PET), Pb (14x) and Al (7x) topping the list (Table 2). Furthermore Zr, Ti, Hf, Th, La, Pr, Fe, Zn, Nd, Sn and Cr show 7 to 2.4 times higher median values in the water stored in glass bottles than in the same water sold in PET bottles. Figure 2 shows this effect for the elements Pb and Th. Again it is apparent that different bottles can leach different amounts.
Glass isn't safe either!
http://www.statistik.tuwien.ac.at/public/filz/papers/10APGEO.pdf



Article on barium leaching in ceramics:
http://www.chicagoartistsresource.org/node/9318


So plastic gives off antimony, glass gives off various elements (toxic metals) which aren't intended to be in your body and may be harmful, and ceramics don't seem to be free of guilt, either. Water storage seems to be a burden with all this info, so as a survivalist I must ask WTF DO WE DO NOW?! Water is a #1 priority, so what options do we have now that storage mediums aren't safe to begin with? I might as well start smoking cigarettes after reading all this.. =/

[Fut004]

Well that's shitty.
I guess this means that purifying water that you find out and about is the best/only option.
Time to start collecting the necessary equipment/chemicals!

[pico]

The thing to remember is that you are trying to survive by having water on hand. If you drink tainted water that has major pollutants in it, or waste or fallout, then you will clearly be in a heap of trouble. If you drink water that might cause cancer 30 years later, I'll take that long term risk any day of the week. The thing to remember is that having shitloads of water is not practical in the vast majority of cases. I have what i would consider a large supply in my home, with around 50 gallons on hand for an emergency. That 50 gallons for my family of five will not last much time at all. In prepping for that, I have a number of water filters to assist in water purifying, and have a number of rain barrels to assist in collecting the water. Improvisions can be put in place to allow large catch basins to be setup quickly and efficiently that would allow me to save much of the water. Simple distillation can clear up some pollutants, and so on. Just my 2 cents worth.

[Anarch]

What Pico said. Distillation. Problem solved.

[gadgett71]

I was a water treatment plant operator for twenty years,and I do agree with Pico in that distillation would give very good water, however distillation of even modest amounts of water is very energy intensive and in a bad situation might not be possible.My own plans are to use well water which has been treated by a simple home made treatment plant made from a few 55 gallon drums some odds and ends and a few easily obtained chemicals (not as difficult as it sounds really).It might also be possible to filter water from a simple house de-humidifier (could be run from a car battery and inverter in a pinch).Of course you can always just put a plastic bag over a tree branch and let mother nature and the tree supply you with pure water through transpiration.But yes please be advised that long term water storage, especially in plastic, can leave behind some nasty chemicals,,but glass usually is far superior as far as chemical leaching goes.Hope i didnt stick my nose in everyones business too far,, i"m new here:bounce:

[pico]

Solar distillers use next to no energy, cept the free sun and the energy used by oneself to manufactur the still. Just my 2 cents worth, but one should be better prepped than just having the knowledge to make a simple still. I would think the best method would be to have the portable water filter, and even better, a well if one plans to stay in place.

[GP100]

So, we shouldn't be drinking soda out of bottles either? Or Juice? Or Milk?

What makes water so special?

[pico]

I have always had my doubts about the newer extremely thin clear plastic water bottles being sold these days. Back 10 years ago, water bottles were fairly thick. These days, with the eco types, the bottles are so thin I have had them crack and split with small drops from elevation. I wonder how well the water is purified before bottling, as uv light can not only damage the plastic but also easily start bacterial growth over time, if any is present. Get a water filter, but at the same time keep a stock of bottled water on hand and rotate it out as needed, replacing it with fresh bottles. Nothing beats having 50 gallons of water on hand for when the water treatment plant in your neck of the woods issues a boil ban that lasts more than a couple of days.

[stonesmith]

Most people will only store enough water for a couple of week anyways so it doesn't seem like there should be too much concern over this. Any long-term plan should include some type of filtration system.