Sterilizing Drinking Water

Words of wisdom from our favorite microbiologist, Dr Joseph Falkinham, Virginia Tech, via NTM IR Connect:

“It is important to store UV-irradiated water in the dark, as the nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) and other bacteria, have a system that rapidly reverses the damage to DNA caused by UV-irradiation. That system requires light, either natural or artificial. If you keep UV-irradiated cells in the dark, there is no repair and cells stay killed.

Any UV-sterilizing bottle, like the SterizPen or Crazy Cap must have a dark bottle, either metal or black painted.

It’s fine to store UV-irradiated water in another container, but make sure the new container is already sterile and will not admit light.

Dark, light impermeable bottles are only required for UV-irradiated water; filtered or boiled water do not have to be stored in dark bottles.”

If you are like me and leave your Steripen in the bathroom to sterilize water for drinking and brushing your teeth, you’ll probably want to just sterilize for your immediate needs. Since sterilizing only takes a minute or two it’s not a huge hassle to sterilize another glass of water later for your nighttime routine.

Thank you, Dr. Falkinham for explaining how to keep ourselves healthy.

https://connect.ntminfo.org/home (patients only)

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