Reducing Exposure to Nontuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM)

I am also interested. My kettle shuts off too.

Here is my layperson's take on this question.
According to a couple publications (which I cannot seem to copy right now) MAC & MAI are killed by 5 seconds of exposure to temperatures of 70C (about 170F). At that temperature, formation of any biofilm to harbor bacteria would be very limited. It would seem this would limit the amount of mycobacteria in the water.

Other considerations would be the frequency and cost of filter replacement, and how to clean the tank regularly.

This is neither a scientific opinion, nor a recommendation, simply some things to consider. If you are considering it, more research into the safety and a discussion with your pulmonologist would be warranted.

Sue

Sue,

The effectiveness of boiling the water to kill microorganisms is influenced by the combination of temperature and length of treatment, and depends on the species of microorganism.

However, because of practical reasons (most of us don't have the tabulated values for the species-temperature-time combinations, or thermometers, or stop watches at hand when we're boiling water at home), the attainment of the rolling boiling stage is usually considered as the end point of the process.

Armando

It seems that many of us are worried because we don't know how to keep water boiling for 10 min in an electric kettle, after it automatically shuts off. Thus, we're trying to follow the sequence (A) in the attached diagram: the water reaches first boil in the kettle and keeps boiling until it becomes a rolling boil and the is when the automatic shut-off operates.

I consulted Dr. Falkinham on this matter, and he explained that adding 10 min after the water reached the rolling boiling stage was not necessary. So we need to follow the sequence shown as (B) in the second attached diagram, that shows that after the water reached the full or rolling boiling stage we can safely stop the boiling process. No need to worry about overriding or not using the automatic shut-off, if we're using an electric kettle equipped with one.

Armando

Thank you Armando for getting to the bottom of this. Do you think Dr. Falkinham would do a webnair on reducing NTM exposure or a Q&A session for those of us who have read his very helpful paper and still have a lot of questions? Can you pose this question to him?
lora jo

During the ntminfo webinair on gerd yesterday, they said there was an upcoming presentation by Falkinham coming up soon. BTW if you missed yesterday's talk, it is recorded and worth watching.

Thank you Armando for getting to the bottom of this. Do you think Dr. Falkinham would do a webnair on reducing NTM exposure or a Q&A session for those of us who have read his very helpful paper and still have a lot of questions? Can you pose this question to him?
lora jo

Could you send a link please?

Hi lora jo, I'm going to ask Dr Falkinham.

They don't have a link yet. When they do I will post it. Meanwhile you may want to watch Dr Huitt's (from NJH) gerd talk. She answered 100 questions including on water. She's in favor of boiling for 5 minutes.