I am not anything close to an ecologist or a biologist so this question may be really dumb. But I know that water is essential. It is used in many important bodily processes and we would die without it very quickly.
So my question is, how did so many generations of humans survive without the water purification standards that we have today?
Is there a reasonable amount of dirt, toxins, bacteria, etc… that can be in water and it won’t make us sick?
I also know people have boiled water for a very long time but didn’t we only discover bacteria and viruses in the lasts several hundred years? Did people know that boiling water would purify it?
Also am I wrong for thinking that most water in nature is dangerous to drink?
Hopefully these questions make sense.
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>Also am I wrong for thinking that most water in nature is dangerous to drink?
If you are watching TV, say some reality survival show, and it shows someone drinking tainted water, they will get sick later on. Its basically Chekov’s gun.
If they drank the tainted water and don’t get sick, they’ll cut out the scene of them drinking the tainted water.
So yes, your risk ratio is probably off. It is incredibly unsafe to drink not treated water. You should not do it if you don’t have to, but doing so is not a guarantee you get sick. If you pick your water sources safely you can reduce your risk greatly. However, the only way to reduce your risk to near 0 is by treating the water, such as boiling it.
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