Sanitation for Considerations for Long Term Emergency Situations - Part 1

[JohnyMac]

I ran across the below article on survivalblog.com. It is well written and full of good points...

Enjoy...

Sanitation for Considerations for Long Term Emergency Situations - Part 1

If you go out onto the Internet, whether it is YouTube, one of the many prepper websites, any of the preparedness forums, and so forth, you are always treated to a wealth of interesting and useful information. Information on food storage, bug out bags, fire starting, EDC reviews, and all sorts of other subjects are common, with the issues of food and clean water being the most important. While many would think personal defense is the next most important issue to be discussed, the truth of the matter is that the need to defend yourself is a potential and not an absolute certainty. What is an absolute certainty and must be considered the third most important subject to be addressed in a long emergency situation is how to deal with your waste. Whether it is pee or poo, human waste has a high potential for causing many diseases, and this potential is made worse by how much pee and poo each person creates day after day after day.

Today, we live in what many would consider a fairly sterile environment as compared to what people lived in a century ago. The customary washing of hands before eating has become a distant memory for many, because we just never seem to get all that dirty any more. Additionally, most people today have been brought up with toilets in their homes. They go into the bathroom, do their business, hit the flush handle, and then leave, without any further thought. Magically, their pee and poo just disappears at the push of a button, so little or no thought goes to sanitation, if or why it is important, or how sewage treatment even works. Some who have thought about this are those who have gone camping where they are required to use an outhouse. Even then, all their thoughts are usually focused on the terrible stench found in the outhouse, and little thought is given to anything else. Those that go camping further back into the bush often do not have an outhouse or portable toilet available, so they typically just wander away from camp to do their business and then forget about it. All of these behaviors lead us to think about pee and poo as a smelly inconvenience and little else. Nothing could be more wrong. In a world where 2.5 billion people still lack flush toilets, around 1.5 million die every year from diarrhea, with the majority of these deathes being those under the age of 5. In a SHTF situation, these conditions would come to America and we would pay a far worse penalty, for we have little experience with this matter... Click to continue to read

[JoJo]

Great article which got me thinking about a very good barter item --- FLY SWATTERS.

[gadget99]

Good article and a great subject.

Here in the UK they had something called carbalic soap. Basically the UK version of lye soap.

You can still get it on ebay here. So I have on hand 160 bars and going to buy 80 more soon. At £24 for 80. it is a great deal. You can wash everything with it and a bar would last a family a month washing themselves, dishes and clothing.

I am buying more due to it's value as a trade item.

[Kbop]

nice article. 
I have never heard of carbolic soap before.  cool info.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbolic_soap

[Erick]

Great article which got me thinking about a very good barter item --- FLY SWATTERS.

We are buying a huge case of fly paper

[JohnyMac]

The next time I am in the store I am going to see if Lava soap is like carbalic soap. Amazon sells it too...Carbolic Soap