Posted on 08/15/2005 2:05:08 PM PDT by steel_resolve
Would you eat food cooked in your own urine? Food scientists working for the US military have developed a dried food ration that troops can hydrate by adding the filthiest of muddy swamp water or even peeing on it.
The ration comes in a pouch containing a filter that removes 99.9 per cent of bacteria and most toxic chemicals from the water used to rehydrate it, according to the Combat Feeding Directorate, part of the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts. This is the same organisation that created the "indestructible sandwich" that will stay fresh for three years (New Scientist print edition, 10 April 2002).
The aim is to reduce the amount of water soldiers need to carry. One day's food supply of three meals, weighs 3.5 kilograms but that can be reduced to about 0.4 kilograms with the dehydrated pouches, says spokeswoman Diane Wood.
The pouch - containing chicken and rice initially - relies on osmosis to filter the water or urine. When two solutions of different concentrations are separated by a semipermeable membrane, with gaps that allow only water molecules to pass through, the water is drawn to the more concentrated side.
Hungry soldier
The membranes are made of thin sheets of a cellulose-based plastic, with gaps between the fibres that are just 0.5 nanometres across, too small for bacteria to pass through.
A hungry soldier pours dirty water into one end of a foil sachet containing two inner pouches separated by the membrane. The water seeps through the membrane into the dehydrated food on the other side. As it dissolves large molecules in the food, it creates a very high concentration solution. The osmotic pressure created then draws more water through the membrane.
Hydration Technology of Albany, Oregon, which makes the membrane, says soldiers should only use urine in an absolute emergency because the membrane is too coarse to filter out urea.
The body will not find this toxic over the short term, says Ed Beaudry, an engineer with HTI, but rehydrating food this way in the long term would cause kidney damage.
Sterile is not the same as non-toxic.
Back when I was in the reserves we had this butter bar who was a total jerk. We were on manuevers in Camp Bullis outside of San Antonio when he dropped from the heat. The SGT had us pee on him to cool him down. It suggests that in the manual, no joke. Besides it was good for moral.
What is toxic about urine? Remember urine is highly filtered excess not waste.
We had a sgt that was an alky and one time he was so far gone he mistakenly picked up a beer can someone p*ssed in as a joke.
After almost drinkuing all of it he got on one of the guys to get some fresh beer that the hot sun must skunked the case he was working on.
Eventually he evacced out, packed in ice.
The combusted water is exhaled.
Most of the stuff that's found in urine is stuff that used to be going through the bloodstream. Although urine does contain toxins, in higher concentrations than exist in the bloodstream, they are harmless within certain limits (if injested they'll just be excreted again). There are limits to how long the cycle can go, since each time the water goes through the body the levels of toxins will increase.
My understanding is that, in a typical person, reusing water once is pretty harmless. Twice is not good, but not too bad. Three or more times and there start being severe problems.
Still, unless absolutely necessary, I'd just as soon use the urine to cool the motar tube, or, if we still used them, the liquid cooled machine gun.
But of course this thread started with a discussion of a filter system to take out most of those toxins, and hopefully most of the taste as well. With that I have no problem.
Brilliant idea!
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