Potable Aqua Chorine Dioxide Water Purification Tablets (Outdoor Retailer Winter Market 2006)

Aging Boomers comprise the most important market for the Outdoor Industry today. They grew up with the outdoors, and they have a lot of money.

A higher-than-expected fraction of those Boomers also like the taste of iodine. After all, they grew up with Potable Aqua for water treatment. I know one Boomer that uses Potable Aqua when he travels - for business - to treat hotel water. He says "it reminds me of the good old days", squinting through the tainted plastic of a Nalgene bottle that must be as old as the Potable Aqua brand.

I've spent a long time poking fun at Potable Aqua. For the past several years, it's been a dead brand, content to stick its head in the sand while Aqua Mira, Katadyn, and now KlearWater further threaten its very existence.

No more. Potable Aqua goes ClO₂ too with the introduction of chlorine dioxide water purification tablets.

Similar in function to Katadyn MicroPur tablets, it's great to see the most beloved water treatment brand of my Boy Scout years revive itself with the reality of today's technology.

I enjoyed my time at the Wisconsin Pharmaceutical (who owns the Potable Aqua brand) booth today, reminiscing about old times, old tastes, and old stained Nalgene bottles, while celebrating the future and listening to some exciting things that WP has in store for the lightweight community.

BackpackingLight.com will bring Potable Aqua products - including both the new chlorine dioxide tablets and, for old time's sake, Potable Aqua Iodine tablets, into the Gear Shop next month. You'll probably never find big filters or complex technologies here, but we do aim to provide the most comprehensive and sensible collection of water treatment products for those who like to save weight.

Specifications and Features

• Active ingredients: sodium chlorite 6.4%, sodium dischloroisocyanurate dihydrate 1.0%
• EPA Reg. No. 70060-22-79533; EPA Est. No. 79533-WI-1
• Options: Available in 20- and 30-tablet packages
• Instructions: Remove the tablet from its foil packaging and quickly insert into one quart (one liter) of contaminated water. Allow to react for 4 hours, in an area away from sunlight, to generate a solution of 4ppm as chlorine dioxide.
• Usage guidelines: Use Potable Aqua Chlorine Dioxide Water Purification Tablets to kill bacteria, viruses, and cysts (Cryptosporidium parvum and Giardia muris) in contaminated water.