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Why do people in danger at sea die of thirst? Why can't sea water be drunk?

More than 70% of the earth is sea water. People have been preaching that we must save water. In fact, we use a small number of fresh water resources on the earth. People do not drink seawater. On the one hand, the purified water after seawater treatment and filtration is free of any minerals and trace elements. On the other hand, the cost of converting seawater into drinkable fresh water is too high. But what about the unfiltered sea water? I believe that many people who swim by the sea have drunk the sea water more or less. Is the sea water really not drinkable?

The biggest reason people are afraid of drinking seawater is the high salinity. Many crew members who are sailing on the sea, or in case of a shipwreck, have been told not to drink sea water no matter how thirsty they are. This is because under such emergency conditions, it is difficult for people to obtain fresh water resources, and they can't help drinking sea water. The concentration of salt in the sea water is 4 times that of human body fluid. Drinking the sea water does not quench thirst. On the contrary, the more thirsty you are, the more likely you are to die.

In addition, the function of kidney excreting salt in human body is too limited, only about 2% of salt can be excreted, and the salt concentration of seawater reaches 3.5%, which is difficult to be excreted, which results in the dehydration of drinking seawater, but the situation is getting worse and worse. Some people have done experiments specially. They put fresh seawater into a pot and boil it. After one pot of seawater is boiled, the whole pot bottom condenses into a layer of white crystals, which are white salt blocks. Feel that if people eat so much salt at once, they will definitely die.

Another reason why seawater can't be drunk is that its ingredients are too complex. Where we can't see with the naked eye, there are many micro organisms hidden in the sea water. They may be some algae with toxins, or they may be small insects, bacteria and other difficult things to analyze. The health situation is really worrying. After drinking the sea water, it is likely to have a great impact on our bodies, so people who go out to sea will have their own mineral water, and will never drink the sea water.