Many consumers today take drinking water for granted but in January 2005 the City of Phoenix, Arizona, water authority issued a public “Boil Alert”. It seems that the municipal water was cloudy (turbid), which is a possible sign of microbiological contamination of the water. So the authorities did what they all do and recommended boiling the water to kill the potential biological contaminants.
As a result, 1 million plus Phoenix water customers boiled their water for several days. Why several days? It took that long to determine whether the water had dangerous biological contaminants which could have caused illness or even deaths among the population. It could even have been a deliberate terrorist attack some speculated.
After several days the water was found not to have excess levels of biological contaminants and the Boil Alert was lifted.
However, lets consider for a minute what the scenario would have been if the water was indeed contaminated with a dangerous life-threatening biological warfare agent. First all the water pipes where the contaminated water passed through would become contaminated and require considerable subsequent disinfection. Secondly, consumers with filters, reverse osmosis and other “barrier” purification systems would find their systems had become contaminated and in all likelihood would require replacement. A breach of systems contaminated this way could lead to dangerous consequences.
Those consumers who had installed a well designed high quality water distiller prior to the event would have “survived” the event as the distiller produces BioSecure water. Unlike the barriers distillers have four properties that “barriers” do not have:
1) boil the water (to kill bacteria and other biological contaminants),
2) phase-change from liquid (water) to vapor (steam) that effectively allows pure water molecules to lift away from the contaminants,
3) the distillation process has a built-in “air-gap” and is not a pressurized system.
4) distillation is recommended by FEMA, and American Red Cross and American Water Works Association in a water emergency situation.
Thus in all likelihood, water distiller users would have avoided the problem, avoided any water outage and have had the peace of mind in knowing that their families were well protected with the best, most complete water purification process.
People need to understand that the government has different goals than individuals do. You are responsible for your family’s safety!
This is another excellent summary of the superiority of steam-distilled water. Note also that filters have that “fine print” advising consumers: DO NOT USE with microbiologically unsafe water!! If the municipalities were to enforce their own public health laws, every water filter in the boil-alert area would be deemed out-of-code and must be replaced. Wouldn’t the filter/RO industry just love that! But the city leaders would have a bigger crisis on their hands. So once again we find that government water “safety” is more a factor of money & convenience than health. Hence, the “considerable subsequent disinfection” to protect their liability?