Much has been written about boiling water for purification, ten minutes this twenty minutes that, etc. In fact this same bit of information has been regurgitated over and over and over. The fact is, you don’t need to and industries have known about this for years; why everyone continues to believe in boiling I don’t get.

Water boils at around 212 degrees farenheit, but pasteurization is reached at about 150. Pasteurization kills all the nasties that are nasty to you, including Giardia and Cryptosporidium, well before water reaches boiling temperature. Not only that, tests show that a contact time as low as 5 seconds, at pasteurization temperature, is enough to kill or deactivate the nasties, in most cases.

Why am I posting this? Because, I’m tired of seen misinformation disseminated amongst our community. The stuff that is being written needs to change. You gotta think. Don’t water treatment plants and dairy industries use pasteurization, not boiling, to rid the parasites.

Regardless, here are some links to argue my point.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=168072&blobtype=pdf
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-144664550.html
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=239648
http://www.katharinehamnett.com/images/campaigns/csp_report/New-Methods-of-Water-Pasteurisation.pdf

Sorry for venting and sounding curt, but, today I got in an argument with a first responder over it. Too bad I wasn’t behind my computer to show him the tests.

Alan

Hm! How would altitude factor into this theory?

Venting indeed! I bet you'r hot enough to sterilise a lake Arrowhead delivery truck. Never, ever argue: Just calmly offer resources to educate the other person.When you introduce egos, the other party tunes out even cogent arguments.

We've known this for a while. However, 150 doesn't kill ALL nasties- things like crypto have been known to take bit more. Besides, I don't carry a cooking thermometer anywhere outside of the kitchen. So if it is boiling, it is done.

I always thought that they told you to boil it because then you know for sure that it is hot enough. You can't just look and say, yep, its 160 degrees, but if it is boiling you know it is hot enough.

Roger

As you go up in altitude water boils at a lower temperature. How high do you need to go before you don't reach 150DegF?

Chris, you're right. I shouldn't have come off that way. SORRY!

dougwalkabout-- altitude will just change the amount of time to reach pasteurization.

ironraven-- that's not exactly true. it just takes longer to reach pasteurization. But yes, you're right once its reached boiling, you're GTG.

z96, exactly! but, rest assured, by the time you reach boiling temp, they be dead. no need to boil longer.

Again sorry guys

Alan

Alan:

How dare you inject actual science into the received wisdom of surrealism! Actually, myths of survivalism might make a pretty good thread to explore.

I'll start: "If you're lost in the woods, follow waterways downstream; it will lead you to civilization."

While I acknowledge it may sometimes work, experience suggests, when lost in the mountains, it will often lead only to thicket-choked ravines, and increasingly steep, dangerous or impassible terrain, along with making both air and ground searches less able to find you. Likewise, in flatter terrain, like much of the US Southeast, it could lead you into swamps, bogs and other gator and skeeter-infested, and nearly impassable terrain. Generally it is much better to stick to ridgelines and other open terrain, sheltering on the margins if weather dictates.

Jeff

It has always been my understanding that the only reason you get the water to boiling point is to ensure it is hot enough to kill any nasty. Once boiling it is GTG and those time limits I have always ignored because they have never made sense to me.

"...If you're lost in the woods..."

"...Generally it is much better to stick to ridgelines and other open terrain, sheltering on the margins if weather dictates..."

That may be true, but sitting still is probably still the best thing to do if lost in the boonies...