Three Web sites on Boiled Water was RE: [at-l] smug hiker knowledge

[nealb@midlandstech.com (William Neal)]

Most of the following sites have suggestions for various food & water safety
measures.  Most also include suggestions for DISTILLATION & so I included
the quote only on the first one.  

Boiling will "kill" most germs and related nasties, but it does little (if
anything) to remove chemicals.  Distillation should remove some (if not all)
chemicals, or so I seem to remember from HS and college chemistry.  Also
many of the bottled waters are nothing more than distilled water (one of the
"major" bottled waters is "fished" out of the local river in Columbia, SC.
Same water as my tap water but it's been distilled).  Of course there were
only two things that I cared about in Chemistry -- Frances and the
distillation of corn.

William, The Distilled Turtle.

>From the WASHINGTON STATE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIVISION:
"Boiling is the safest method of purifying water. Bring the water to a
rolling boil for at least 5-minutes. Let the water cool before drinking. "
"Distillation involves boiling water and then collecting the vapor that
condenses back to water.
To distill, fill a pot halfway with water. Tie a cup to the handle on the
pot's lid so that the cup will hang right side up when the lid is upside
down. Make sure the cup is not dangling into the water, and boil the water
for 20-minutes. The water that drips from the lid into the cup is
distilled."
	http://www.wa.gov/wsem/3-peet/pubed/01campaign/14-water.htm

From: Food Safety and Inspection Service United States Department of
Agriculture
"The surest way to make water safe is to boil it. Boiling will kill
microorganisms. First, bring water to a rolling boil, and then continue
boiling for 1 minute. Before heating, muddy water should be allowed to stand
for a while to allow the silt to settle to the bottom. Dip the clear  water
off the top and boil. At higher elevations, where the boiling point of water
is lower, boil  for several minutes."
	http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/pubs/hcb.htm

>From : FEMA
"Boiling is the safest method of purifying water. Bring water to a rolling
boil for 3-5 minutes, keeping in mind that some water will evaporate. Let
the water cool before drinking. Boiled water will taste better if you put
oxygen back into it by pouring the water back and forth between two clean
containers.  This will also improve the taste of stored water."
	http://www.fema.gov/pte/foodwtr.htm
NOTE: Same advice at American Red Cross site.  Don't know who originally
published it.
NOTE:  In a "gourmet" cookbook -- I love to drool over receipes -- that
dealt with drinks (non-alcholic) it suggested pouring your "hot" drink from
a "height" in order to mix in some oxygen since boiling drives out the
oxygen.  And it is the oxygen mixing with the molecules of the drink that
conveys the taste to your tastebuds.  It certainly makes my coffee/tea taste
better.  I usually start low to the cup (the smaller the cup, the lower) and
I increase the height as I pour 'til I reach the bad-splash zone (usually
'bout 18" for me after practicing this for several years).  Then I decrease
the height (as I pour) 'til I am right above the cup.