| Author |
 Topic  |
|
garytse86
Radio Wave
United Kingdom
75 Posts |
 Posted - 01/25/2003 : 20:59:13
I have heard something very strange recently, it is if you boil water too many times then it becomes poisonous? I really doubt this would happen because what boiled water is pure water at a different temperature.
Alert Mentor now
|
kleinjahr
Visible Light Wave
Canada
683 Posts |
Posted - 01/25/2003 : 22:58:42
Aahh! Pull the other one willya!Boiling water does not make it poisonous. As a matter of fact it is one of the ways we purify water, distillation. As the water turns to steam it leaves behind most of the impurities, metals, salts etc. On the other hand if you insist on boiling water only in vessels made of lead or arsenic compounds then you probably will run into problems.
Alert Mentor now
|
garytse86
Radio Wave
United Kingdom
75 Posts |
Posted - 01/30/2003 : 19:58:23
Ok Thanks!!!!!!
Alert Mentor now
|
voyeur
Visible Light Wave
USA
577 Posts |
Posted - 01/30/2003 : 22:40:14
It IS (or at least it can be) true. It's one of those old wives tales that has a basis in fact. The reason has to do with WHAT you boil it in repeatedly. The boiling water can dissolve the container a little. Acidic water will dissolve more. If you boil the water repeatedly, you concentrate what is dissolved while dissolving more into it, only water (as well as some volatiles not worth mentioning) escapes the solution through boiling. So it all depends on what is being dissolved and how much is in the solution. Enough of the wrong stuff and it's poisonous, too much of the right stuff and it's poisonous. Don't be fooled into thinking poisonous means instantly deadly, something that kills you slowly is still poisonous.
Alert Mentor now
|
kleinjahr
Visible Light Wave
Canada
683 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2003 : 10:26:53
The concentrate is known as brine. It's not exactly the most drinkable water around, in any noticeable concentration of the salts and minerals.
Alert Mentor now
|
voyeur
Visible Light Wave
USA
577 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2003 : 13:10:26
It's not brine (salty water) Klein, but I did forget that you will also concentrate the minerals in the water. What you get when you boil water continuously in a container, replacing what evaporates, is a concentration of the dissolved metals the container is made of, not brine. If the container is a ceramic, you will get a concentration of the impurities that are in the ceramic, oftentimes this is lead if it is a cheap ceramic. I never use a coffee cup that is made in a third world country (I would advise against using a coffee cup made in China too). I only trust ceramics that are made in this country or Western Europe. I also never use any type of Aluminum pot or pan, there is no minimum daily requirement for Aluminum. If you are using Iron or Steel, you are pretty safe, but too much Iron can kill you too. Another example of my statements being true is that you can get all the nutritional Iron you need by cooking in a cast Iron pan, this is a well known fact and the principle is the same.
Alert Mentor now
Edited by - voyeur on 01/31/2003 13:16:37
|
FZ
Gamma Wave
United Kingdom
2222 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2003 : 22:05:24
It seems to me that alot rests on whether we are talking about boiling the water and condensing the steam or boiling the water and drinking the bit left behind. In the abscence of any direct clarification, I would assume the latter. In this case voyeur is IMHO more correct. You end up merely concentrating the impurities in the water. But you will have killed the microbes too, which is the real importance of boiling drinking water in countries were such mains water is unsafe. (in UK, water can be drunk from the tap. However it contains a larger chloride/floride conc that others to kill the bacteria)-------------
C:\DOS\
C:\DOS\RUN\
RUN\DOS\RUN
Alert Mentor now
|
kleinjahr
Visible Light Wave
Canada
683 Posts |
Posted - 01/31/2003 : 22:14:26
Brine is what you get when you run an evaporator to distill water, even if the water you start out with is not particularly briny. It includes all the salts that may be in the water as well as any dissolved minerals or metals. The minerals are generally what precipitates out first and forms scale.
Mind you boiling some water in a pot on the stove is not going to make the water very briny.
Alert Mentor now
|
zepplin2244
Radio Wave
USA
11 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2003 : 03:02:27
I dont think it really matters what is left behind because I highly doubt anyone would even think to use what would be left behind and besides, there wouldn't be that much left behind to use. And what exactly is brine?Ross
Alert Mentor now
|
STAii
X-Ray Wave
Jordan
1376 Posts |
Posted - 02/06/2003 : 17:16:43
It highly depends on the container.--If you are boiling water, and condensing the steam, then you get water that is really near to be pure (no minerals, no salts, but some gases disolved, which are surely not poisionus in normal condition)
--If you are boiling water and drinking what is left, and supposing that you are using the right tools (the water is not reacting with the container nor the tools you are using), then you are killing microbes (assuming you get the water to a high enough temprature at least the first time), and this is a good thing. You will still have minerals in the water, and if the quantity of minerals at the begining (before boiling) is not posionus, then it will not turn poisonus unless you evaporate a big ammount of water (this way the concentration of the minerals will get REALLY high, and this can be somehow poisonus)
--If you are using wrong containers, you will finish up with lot of toxins and acids. Also (i am not sure of this, i am only assuming it) if you heat the water to a certain degree that is not enough to kill the microbes, some of the microbes may become more effective, and may make toxins (i don't think there are any of those microbes normally in water), anyone has any idea about this last point ? You've gotta be japaneese !
Alert Mentor now
|
kleinjahr
Visible Light Wave
Canada
683 Posts |
Posted - 02/26/2003 : 02:09:59
Zepplin: Brine is literally salt water. In fact the saline solution used in hospitals could be considered a weak brine. As you boil off water the minerals and salts are left behind either as scale or still in the water remaining. Thus making it a brine solution. By the way there are uses for brine itself, such as pickling and in some industrial freezers/AC units.
Alert Mentor now
|
russ_watters
Radio Wave
USA
53 Posts |
Posted - 02/26/2003 : 21:15:16
quote:
It seems to me that alot rests on whether we are talking about boiling the water and condensing the steam or boiling the water and drinking the bit left behind.
If its left behind, it hasn't boiled ;)When you say a pot contains boiling water, what you really mean is that SOME of the water is boiling (becoming steam) and the rest isn't (but might in the future if you keep the heat on). The water left behind after you turn off the heat is there because it did NOT boil. Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM a professional hairsplitter.
Alert Mentor now
|
ai
Radio Wave
India
3 Posts |
Posted - 02/27/2003 : 16:22:42
Depending on the material in which you're boiling the water, if the pan you're using is made of a metal, of which high concentration in the body would make it poisonous... The multiple boiling of water would lead to the increase of the particals in the water which in return go to your body and act toxic. though poor germs would be out of the way, your pan would be left to blame!!
-AI
*A*
Alert Mentor now
|
