Hi Folks,
One thing Ive noticed from watching brushcraft videos on Youtube, is that many Youtubers head out to local woodland that is surrounded by agricultural land to make their videos. When I see someone scoop water out of a stream and I can see farmland through the trees behind them, I often wonder whether they are exposing themselves to agricultural chemicals in the water herbicides, insecticides and fertilisers given that these chemicals have been applied to the land year in year out for decades. Boiling will kill off the organic dangers, but wont eliminate all the chemicals (those with a lower boiling point that water will be carried off in the steam but others will remain).
Which brings me to my question. Leaving aside the practicalities of collecting it - I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on how safe rainwater is to drink. I typed rainwater into the Search facility and no articles came up so I dont think this has been dealt with on this forum before (?).
Ive read a few articles online and some reckon rainwater is fairly safe to drink and others less so. Most point out the obvious; rainwater captured directly from the sky into a clean container will be cleaner/safer than run-off from a roof, tree or plant. Obviously rain that has run across a roof that the crows have been pooping on, before descending a manky down-pipe into a grimy oil-drum wont be very safe to drink!
They also point out that, in falling, rain picks up contaminants from the air, and suggest that rainwater around/downwind from chemical plants, power stations etc. might be more suspect as it might be contaminated by pollutants. Fair enough.
My initial thought (not based on any science, just gut feeling!) is that rainwater is probably purer than ground/river/stream water since the latter is just rainwater that has been contaminated further by the soil and any chemicals that man has applied to that soil or run-off from adjacent land etc. There are exceptions, of course, such as a fresh highland spring emerging from the ground. Rainwater would probably still need to be boiled/sterilised as a precaution, but my thoughts are (a) it would probably not need to be filtered, and (b) it is likely to have less chemical contaminants.
Also, given our prevailing winds come in from the Atlantic, rain-clouds will have been formed over the ocean and will, therefore, be relatively clean to start with.
Id be interested to hear what other people think.
Looking forward to your comments,
Mike.
**Id also like to mention that, as a newbie, I found British Reds post The Science of Water posted back in 2008 to be very informative article and would recommend it highly
One thing Ive noticed from watching brushcraft videos on Youtube, is that many Youtubers head out to local woodland that is surrounded by agricultural land to make their videos. When I see someone scoop water out of a stream and I can see farmland through the trees behind them, I often wonder whether they are exposing themselves to agricultural chemicals in the water herbicides, insecticides and fertilisers given that these chemicals have been applied to the land year in year out for decades. Boiling will kill off the organic dangers, but wont eliminate all the chemicals (those with a lower boiling point that water will be carried off in the steam but others will remain).
Which brings me to my question. Leaving aside the practicalities of collecting it - I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on how safe rainwater is to drink. I typed rainwater into the Search facility and no articles came up so I dont think this has been dealt with on this forum before (?).
Ive read a few articles online and some reckon rainwater is fairly safe to drink and others less so. Most point out the obvious; rainwater captured directly from the sky into a clean container will be cleaner/safer than run-off from a roof, tree or plant. Obviously rain that has run across a roof that the crows have been pooping on, before descending a manky down-pipe into a grimy oil-drum wont be very safe to drink!
They also point out that, in falling, rain picks up contaminants from the air, and suggest that rainwater around/downwind from chemical plants, power stations etc. might be more suspect as it might be contaminated by pollutants. Fair enough.
My initial thought (not based on any science, just gut feeling!) is that rainwater is probably purer than ground/river/stream water since the latter is just rainwater that has been contaminated further by the soil and any chemicals that man has applied to that soil or run-off from adjacent land etc. There are exceptions, of course, such as a fresh highland spring emerging from the ground. Rainwater would probably still need to be boiled/sterilised as a precaution, but my thoughts are (a) it would probably not need to be filtered, and (b) it is likely to have less chemical contaminants.
Also, given our prevailing winds come in from the Atlantic, rain-clouds will have been formed over the ocean and will, therefore, be relatively clean to start with.
Id be interested to hear what other people think.
Looking forward to your comments,
Mike.
**Id also like to mention that, as a newbie, I found British Reds post The Science of Water posted back in 2008 to be very informative article and would recommend it highly