Recommendations for boiling times are all over the map. I have seen statements that as much as five minutes of a full boil are required. I seem to do fine just bringing the water to a rolling boil, and then chilling it. There have been ti As far as I know, I havewater.
When my niece was born 13 years ago, they said 5 min. when my son was born almost 9 years ago, they said 10. When my nephew came along 6 months later it was back to 5. When his sister arrived 2 years later it was "just get it to a rolling boil." My MIL says it's all hooey. She may be right, but never got past the 10 mins.
The boiling times are relative. The answer should really be "it depends". It depends on altitude for one. Water boils at 200F at 6,000ft elevation. It boils at an even lower temp as you climb higher. You would need to boil longer vs. shorter at higher altitudes to kill off the nasties.
Particulate matter will also change the formula. If you have some tiny pieces of "stuff" floating around, you basically need to cook these so the internal temperature of that little piece of wood or that little conglomerate of sediment rises to the level needed to kill off the nasties inside that particulate. Think of it as cooking a piece of pork. You need to cook a pork roast longer than a piece of bacon in order to get the internal temp up to a sterilization temp.
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