Iodine drops for Everest Base Camp Trek

Hi, I've heard that Lugol's 5% iodine solution is the standard for water purification on treks. However, it is very expensive to buy in the UK. I'm going on the Everest Base Camp trail next month and to save on my costs, was wondering if it might be cheaper to buy the iodine in Kathmandu?

Could anyone recommend me a specific place in or around Thamel where it might be possible to buy a high grade solution to use on the trek? Any brand names you could suggest, which from personal experience were very good, assuming I can't get Lugol's there?

I will be using it as a back up to my water carbon filter so only need a small amount as a back up.

Thanks

Is iodine expensive in the UK ???? Normally it's a very cheap product, including here in Belgium.
I don't know in Nepal, but if you buy ioidine in India it's impossible to know how concentrated (% ?) it is.

Hi

Iodine is readily available in Thamel, the backpackers hub - lots of supermarkets and pharmacies will see it. As far as I can remember Lugol's is available, not sure how much it costs or if other brands are available but hopefully others will post details because, like India, it is difficult know the concentration. If no further info on here consider re-posting on the Nepal branch because it gets more readers and posters.

There other options for safe drinking water on the EBC trek - boiled water is readily available and lodges often have a vat on a rolling boil, bottlrf water too but as well as quality issues the empties are an environmental problem.

By the way, I thought iodine for use as water purification was banned in the EU a couple of years ago...

scoodly

I stopped using iodine long ago so can not speak to its availibility in KTM now but if you plan on using it we used to bring our own small bottles and fitted EYE DROPPER as those used to be hard to obtain in KTM. I could be out of date on that too. In any case I do carry a very small thick strong glass bottle of idodine crystals (very light, minimun water needed, and lasts indefinitly) from the old days for emergency use as back up to my steripen. I pack the bottle of iodine crystals in a good sealing slightly oversized plastic vitamin bottle with a few packing 'peanuts', you know the styrofoam white peanut shaped things that items are shipped in, for crush protection/breakage prevention. The last thing you need is a broken container of iodine in your backpack....

Lugol's solution is available in all pharmacies in Kathmandu, but bring your own dropper. Really the biggest problem is the leaking bottle, or at worst, a broken bottle. That can destroy a lot of gear. Much easier is to buy Potable Aqua pills, you can find those in trekking shops.

That said, you can track the main trails without any water sterilization method. Drink tea, beer, soda pop, eat soups. Buy boiled water from the lodges.

How expensive could this product possibly be?

Well, Lugol's solution was the solution in the eighties, since then better solutions have appeared, like iodine tablets (potable aqua etc.) Really, I have carried iodine pills on several treks and ended up not using them. It is possible to survive a trek relying on local water only.

Thanks Petrus, Roger Ray and Scoodly, that's useful information. As you replied that iodine is now indeed banned, I think I will go for the pills.

Personally I've been using iodine drops for 30 years, and I'm quite satisfied. It is by far the cheapest product, it acts much faster than pills. But bottles in Nepal do leak, you must bring your own empty bottle.

My wife and I used only water from the lodges and their kitchens. I also filled up my bottle in streams along the trek, where the current was strong enough. Pure mountain water of excellent taste and quality.
We never had a problem even though my wife has sensitive stomach.
We had purifying tablets with us that we had bought in Kathmandu but we never used them.

Some people are too cautious if not to say paranoid. I saw a guy from a tour group who treated his bottled mineral water with UV.

Dear Fieldgate that sounds wonderful, but unfortunately, some people have more sensitive stomachs than others. I would love to drink unpurfied stream water, but probably wouldn't take the risk, knowing that there's a chance pollutants may have got into it from further upstream.

zanadutokublakhan,
I can assure it's safe, or even safer, than the industrially processed bottled water where you live (maybe with some exaggeration).
On lower elevations along the trek there are spots where water is running down the rock, and there is a sign "drinking water". On higher elevations there's no risk of polution.

I disagree with the Fieldgate's last two posts, #9 and #11. Personal opinion, preferences, and anecdotes are one thing but outright 'factual' declarations that he made are another thing. He has no way to assure 'excellant quality' as refered to in post #9 unless he brought a sophisticated water testing kit and ran some tests. Water can look good and taste fine yet still contain pathogens that can make you ill, and really foul up your trek, especially if you are over there for a short 2-3 week trek at considerable expense and limited free time to get sick/recover.

His post #11, in its entirety-----

"I can assure it's safe, or even safer, than the industrially processed bottled water where you live (maybe with some exaggeration).
On lower elevations along the trek there are spots where water is running down the rock, and there is a sign "drinking water". On higher elevations there's no risk of pollution."-------

is totally wrong, naive, misleading, and basically ludicrous. First of all he can't "assure" anything unless he ran tests as I mentioned above. As this was not mentioned I will take it that this wasn't done.

Second, I will take the 'industrially processed water' of my community where the specs are on file over random stream or even spring water in Nepal any day and this is backed up by my many years spent in Nepal and many instances of getting ill from bad water. I have spent years at a time in Nepal and am pretty sure that my stomach was pretty well adapted to the local conditions yet if you got some bad water somehow you could get sick. I have never gotten sick from my tap water back in the US.

Thirdly the fact the water is running down a rock is hilariously irrelevant to its purity. It can still contain human and animal waste of the kind you do not want to be drinking unless treated. Even if the poster meant issuing from a spring in a rock there is still no guarantee that the 'spring' is pure. I have seen many 'spriings' that upon further investigation/looking were just a stream flow, open to the air/land/animals/humans etc and then went underground for a short ways and came out of a small grove of vegetation on a crack in a rock. The water was in no sense pure then.

Fourth, the comment that there are signs saying 'drinking water' at rocks hardly needs comment. That is somehow a guarantee of purity???!! There is almost nothing in Nepal that is not adulterated whether it is milk, sodas, kerosene, food, raw grains, fuel, bottled alcohol and guess what? WATER TOO. Just because you can buy bottled water in KTM is absolutely no guarantee that the water is other than KTM tap water or has been adulterated by tap water and what about cleanliness/proper maintanance at the bottling site? Too believe that bottled water in KTM is pure is to be naive. Regardless of how it is 'advertised'. I am one of those who sterilizes my bottled KTM water (with my steripen, KTM being the only place I buy bottled water hoping it maybe, perhaps, hopefully has gone thru some filters or process to take out heavy metals/industrial pollutants, I take it as a given that it probably has your normal pathogens in it----you may do as you choose).To believe a sign near some water in the hills is a guarantee of purity is absurd. Anyone can write anything. That water may in fact be a water source for Nepalis but trekkers are not Nepalis.

Fifth, the last statement that "On higher elevations there's no risk of pollution" is also patently wrong. BTW, just how high is higher elevations, as I have seen humans and animals and piles of 'waste' at above 18,000ft. There are very few places in Nepal that are not open to animals and humans and where the locations can easily be polluted. And guess where Nepalis, like a yak shepard up at high altitude, will likely defecate in the boonies? Near/at a stream so they can wipe their ass with water as they do not use toilet paper.

I am sorry to be so emphatic in this but the information in post # 9 and #11 is patently wrong and misleading and could end up getting some people ill. This would be especially bad were they on a 2-3 week trek, having flown over from Europe etc and spent and lot of money for the trek and was a major event in their life.

I congratulate Fieldgate and his wife on staying healthy whlie drinking untreated water but to generalize from that experience to all others regarding drinking water in Nepal is absolutely wrong, misleading and will likely result in bad consequences for others.

Better to come up with your preferred method of water sterilization and use it.

Roger

Edited by: roger_ray

Indeed it is available - but not marketed as water purification but still (on the face of it) usable as such which shows how preposterous the ban is. Plenty of information about the ban:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=1C1GGGE_enGB418GB448&gcx=c&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=iodine<i>water+purification</i>eu

scoodly

"By the way, I thought iodine for use as water purification was banned in the EU a couple of years ago..."

Lugol´s Solution is sold freely both here in Sweden and in the UK - just check the British Amazon web store. And expensive - around twenty quid in the UK. I use a one ml syringe to measure the solution.

"And guess where Nepalis, like a yak shepard up at high altitude, will likely defecate in the boonies? Near/at a stream so they can wipe their ass with water as they do not use toilet paper."

Not familiar with Sherpa culture specifically , but practice in the .. Tibetosphere , for lack of better word , is more often the opposite : go as far & high from the water as practically possible before taking a dump. Just watch the split in jeep passengers coming off for a break along Himalayan roads for example.

Agree , preposterous. I also noticed on the first hit that it made it appear that CDC was very critical against the use of iodine .. in fact they have posted detailed instructions on how to use it, esp in combination with filtering. Lots of myths on the subject.

Don't know if it is a cultural thing or not and didn't mean to imply it is. Of course most people want to get 'out of sight' but that may mean different things depending on others being around. But is has been my personal experience/observation in Nepal, how to say this, that both humans and animals are not adverse to urinating and defecating near water sources. It hasn't been too long since many village Nepalis have even been aware of 'germ theory'. Sanitation projects with education as a major component about where and why it is appropriate or not to defecate are now starting to get a lot of attention in Nepal. A lot of this behavior is a function of awareness and education of course and those two things are probably more elevated in major tourist areas or with people with more exposure to westerners as in the tourist trade.

As a PS to my harangue, post # 12 above, I would like to add that getting sick just because you happen to drink some unsterilized water at some point is not guaranteed either. Fieldgate's own experience illustrates this. As does my own experience. I often spent months at a time living in small villages without a decent water supply. This was spread over different villages for over 3 years. While doing that I do not believe I ever once drank unsterilized water. At that time I was using iodine tabs. Yet during that same time while living in the villages I also on a regular, if not daily, basis drank the local brew, chang, made with, you guessed it, untreated water. The woman of the house would make a cursory effort to 'wash' her hands (under the fingernails was still black with caked on ???) then squeeze and knead fermented millet and local water, the same water I would religiously sterilize for my own drinking, through a sieve to prepare the chang. It was just part of the experience being there that I and many compadres were involved in. I and my friends located throughout Nepal got sick many times though the frequency and intensity of giardia in particular lessened over time. And many times we didn't get sick but if you carried on like this every day who knows which time got you. We carried stashes of our own meds and got quite good at self diagnosis and treatment. But I wasn't counting on making a trekk timetable or ruining an expensive trip.

So it is not guaranteed you will get sick but it is certainly more likely that you will get sick if you do not treat your water. And the consequences and hassle of getting sick may really interfere with your experience in many ways. Its a percentage/chance thing, take your choice but if you do get sick it isn't particularly fun, especially the first time. Why take that chance?

Perhaps it can be compared to another thread on going at this time, the 'chaos at Lukla' thread. If the weather cooperates and all goes well and all the timing works out then you are ok even if you have built in no cushion time for your ongoing commitments but if the fates are against you then you pay the price. I would suggest the fates will be stacked, heavily, against you if you do not treat water. I will opt for treating my water and would encourage others to do so too.

Roger

There are high mountain streams along the treks in Nepal where you can drink the water without treatment. But you must use your own experience and judgement to decide this.
And you can also get sick from restaurants and lodges. In particular, 'boiled' water' may in fact not have reached the boiling point. Dishwashing may also be a source of problems. And some types of food (dal bhat is safest of all).

More on drinking untreated mountain water.
I agree with WILLEMSPIE, and that's what I also would say.

But you must use your own experience and judgement to decide this.

I've drunk untreated mountain water in several other places in the Andes in South America. I didn't have problem one single time. It's always been water from a stream with strong current or from cascades/waterfall. Of course, you have to eveluate the natural environment you're in.

On the other hand, we all know there are people who get paranoid, not only about water, but also food in general, when they go to foreign countries. Some won't even drink bottled water if it's not one of the western brands they're familiar with, or they'll threat local bottled water with chemicals or UV, just in case.

I know nothing about water in Nepal but I do know that Iodine is banned in the EU and even if you use the water tastes yucky after. Far better using Chlorine Dioxide tablets or fluid. Works better and no taste.

As far as I know iodine works better than chlorine tablets. There is a slight taste in iodine treated water, but that can be cleaned by adding half a C-vitamin pill (ascorbic acid) to 1 liter of iodine treated water. This should not be done in the same bottle used for the iodine treatment, as vit-C contaminates the vessel and the next iodine treatment might not work. Long time tests have been done about the effect of iodine treated water on humans, no adverse effects in people with no thyroid problems. You would also get used to the taste...

Iodine water cleaning pills might be banned in Europe, but they can not prevent you form dropping a few drops of Lugol's solution into your canteen. And their power does not extend to Nepal. Also tinidaxole (Tiniba) is banned in Europe, but it work wonders against giardia in Nepal.

"...but I do know that Iodine is banned in the EU"

What exactly is the meaning of the word banned , when I can buy it both here here in Sweden and UK ?

"Also tinidaxole (Tiniba) is banned in Europe, but it work wonders against giardia in Nepal."

Tinidazol : also used both in Sweden and the UK under the brand name Fasigyn.

#20 I agree with you regardng Chlorine tablets. This is not the same as Chlorine Dioxide however:-
http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2012/chapter-2-the-pre-travel-consultation/water-disinfection-for-travelers.htm

Meaning of banned:-
http://ec.europa.eu/environment/biocides/pdf/list_dates_product_phasing_out.pdf

Yes, iodine is banned in products sold for water sterilization (also other fields of hygiene), but not banned as a chemical. If somebody decides to drop it in their own drinking water the government can not do much about it.

As I understand it from reading about the 'ban' sometime ago the reasons included it was potentially harmful to pregnant women and for long term users (can't remember the definition of long term).

That it is still available in a form suitable for water purification albeit at a much higher price than I remember does make a mockery of the ban.

scoodly