A liquid flows out of the taps, loudly called water. But, even without taking into account its dubious purity, well spoiled by a sick environment, if you remember through what rusty and old communications it flows before getting into the glass, then your hand is unlikely to rise to bring it to your mouth. And rightly so! Trustingly drinking what public utilities treat us to is still reckless.
A water molecule consists of three atoms - one of them is oxygen, two more are hydrogen. Boiling is accompanied by the formation of steam, which releases oxygen molecules. And it consists of three phases:
- the appearance of small groups of bubbles on the surface of the water (it is interesting that the characteristic, well-known sound of the first stage of boiling, the Chinese - big fans of tea ceremonies, poetically call “the sound of the wind in the pine trees”),
- slight cloudiness and then “whitening” of the water,
- seething with large bubbles, intense splashing.
When boiling, dirt particles settle to the bottom of the kettle (or other utensils), salts turn into sediment (forming white scale), and free chlorine and harmful volatile components disappear along with the steam. During the boiling process, microbes, viruses and pathogens are destroyed.
What happens to water when it is boiled again?
There is a strong opinion that water cannot be boiled a second time. The question arises: why can’t you boil water twice? Popular rumor attributes the liquid, which was boiled a second time, to the properties of heavy hydrogen water (without having a good understanding of what it means) we're talking about). The townsfolk scare each other" dead water”, which is harmful to health and is obtained, in their opinion, during the process of repeated boiling.
Reference:
- Heavy (hydrogen-heavy) water has the same chemical formula as ordinary water, with one difference - instead of light hydrogen atoms (protium), it contains heavy hydrogen atoms (deuterium). And heavy water usually looks like a transparent liquid without taste or smell.
- Heavy water molecules were discovered in 1932 by Harold Urey.
- dogs, mice, rats and other mammals die when more than 25% of light hydrogen is replaced by heavy hydrogen in their tissues. The animals die after about a week of constant consumption of such water.
- a person (theoretically) can drink two glasses of heavy water without harm to health - deuterium will be completely eliminated by the body in a few days.
It is obvious that they are afraid of something. And there is undoubtedly some logic in popular statements - after all, light hydrogen molecules evaporate from the liquid along with the steam, and heavier hydrogen molecules, precipitating, increase the deuterium content.
But! Academician I.V. Petryanov-Sokolov once calculated how much water had to evaporate in order for a hazardous amount of deuterium to precipitate. It turned out that to obtain 1 liter of heavy water you need to evaporate 2.1 X 1030 tons ordinary water, (this is 300 million times the mass of the Earth!).
So you can safely boil the water the second and third time. Is this really necessary? Bacteria and viruses have already been killed, and to obtain boiling water, it is enough to bring the liquid to the state of “whitening” - the second phase of the boiling process.
And it is important to keep an eye on the container in which you boil water - scale must be cleaned immediately (with lemon, vinegar - there are many practical and proven ways to deal with scale).
As a result, it is the substances that accumulate on the walls of your kettle that turn into liquid that thermal decomposition affect the properties of water, and not at all how many times you boil it.
What happens to all these substances when water boils? Bacteria and viruses definitely die at the first boil, so this is simply necessary for water disinfection. Especially if the water is taken from a dubious source - a river or a well.
Salts heavy metals Unfortunately, they do not disappear from the water, and when boiling, their concentration can only increase due to the fact that a certain volume of water evaporates. How larger number boiling, the higher the concentration of harmful salts. But, according to scientists, their quantity is still not enough to cause harm to the body. significant harm at one time.
As for chlorine, during boiling it forms a lot organochlorine compounds. And the longer the boiling process lasts, the more such compounds appear. These include carcinogens and dioxins that can cause negative impact on the cells of the human body. Scientists during the laboratory research found that such compounds appear even if the water was purified with inert gases before boiling. Certainly, harmful effect such water will not be noticeable immediately; aggressive substances can accumulate in the body quite long time, and then lead to the development of serious diseases. To harm the body, you need to drink this water every day for several years.
According to British woman Julie Harrison, who has extensive experience in researching the influence of lifestyle and nutrition on the occurrence of cancer, every time water is boiled, the content of nitrates, arsenic and sodium fluoride becomes higher. Nitrates are converted into carcinogenic nitrosamines, which in some cases cause leukemia, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of cancer. Arsenic can also cause cancer, heart pathologies, infertility, neurological problems and, of course, poisoning. Sodium fluoride has a negative effect on the cardiovascular system, and in large doses can lead to sudden changes blood pressure and dental fluorosis. Substances that are harmless in small quantities, for example, calcium salts, become dangerous when boiling water repeatedly: they damage the kidneys, promote the formation of stones in them, and also provoke arthrosis and arthritis. Repeatedly boiling water for children is especially not recommended, since its high sodium fluoride content can seriously harm their mental and neurological development.
Another fact in favor of the inadmissibility of repeated boiling is the formation of deuterium in water - heavy hydrogen, the density of which also increases. Ordinary water turns into “dead” water, the constant use of which can lead to death.
However, scientists are of the opinion that the concentration of deuterium in water, even after several heat treatments, is negligible. According to the research of academician I.V. Petryanov-Sokolov, to obtain one liter of water with a lethal concentration of deuterium, you will have to boil more than two tons of liquid from the tap.
By the way, water boiled several times does not change its taste better side, so the tea or coffee made from it will not be what it should be!
Why can't you boil water a second time? “Unfortunately, many people don’t know the answer to this question, and every day they make the mistake of not draining the old water from the kettle. But this ban has been known for a long time, but most simply turn a blind eye to it in order to save water and pay for public utilities. In this article you will find comprehensive information about why boiling water several times is harmful.
Why boil water?
As you know, nothing can live without water. living creature, be it a plant, animal, microorganism or human. 80% of our body consists of liquid (in infants - 90%). Fresh water We simply need it for normal metabolism and removal of toxins and waste from the body.
Unfortunately, the problem of clean, tasty water in modern world more than relevant:
- in villages where clean springs could previously be found, now they are no longer completely clean due to soil contamination;
- In the city water, to get to the apartment, you need to go through kilometers of pipes of questionable cleanliness.
Important! Naturally, in the latter case the liquid is disinfected with special substances, for example, using bleach, but this spoils the taste and smell of the water, and does not help much. Regarding purification systems, their effectiveness is very controversial, because in some cities they have not changed for several decades.
Conclusion regarding quality drinking water deplorable. In order to somehow remedy the situation, people began to boil the liquid. The purpose of this process is one - to kill all bacteria and microbes that are in raw water, that is, to literally sterilize it.
Indeed, most microorganisms die when exposed to high temperatures. Then why can’t water be boiled many times, because doctors recommend for making tea or coffee to use only the liquid that was boiled once, be sure to pour out the old residues. To understand this recommendation, let’s consider the physical and chemical properties ordinary water.
What happens to water when it boils?
Let us consider in detail what changes occur when the temperature reaches 100 degrees Celsius with the composition of H2O:
- During the boiling process, oxygen and water molecules evaporate.
- Since any water contains large number impurities, you should know that after boiling they do not disappear anywhere. Moreover, their concentration increases, since the liquid itself becomes smaller due to the evaporation of water molecules. Particles of dirt and salt settle at the bottom of the kettle, forming white scale.
Important! That's why sea water even after boiling it is not suitable for drinking.
- All pathogenic bacteria, viruses and microbes are destroyed.
Important! It is a mistake to think that each subsequent boiling kills everything. more harmful microbes, viruses and bacteria. All harmful microorganisms die during the first heat treatment at 100 degrees Celsius.
- Water molecules contain heavy chemical elements– isotopes of hydrogen. They are resistant to temperatures up to 100 degrees and settle to the bottom during boiling. Thus, the liquid becomes “heavier”.
Is it possible to boil water several times?
A large number of people do not drain the old, previously boiled liquid, and boil it again to make tea. Is it harmful to boil water a second time? - Let's look into this issue.
Boiled water is completely tasteless
If a fresh transparent liquid does not have a special taste, then a boiled liquid loses even its remnants. And if you boil water several times, it turns into very tasteless. To understand the difference, you can conduct an experiment:
Boiling makes water “dead”
The more often and more water undergoes processing, the more useless the resulting liquid is. When boiling, the chemical formula H2O is violated, since oxygen leaves the liquid. The water becomes “dead”.
The amount of impurities increases
With each subsequent boiling of the same liquid, the concentration of salts increases. Naturally, human body such changes are not immediately felt, and the toxicity of such a liquid is a negligible percentage. But all reactions in “heavy” water occur more slowly, and deuterium, an element that is released from hydrogen during boiling, tends to accumulate, which brings undoubted harm to the body.
Important! “Heavy” water looks the same as ordinary water, and has the same chemical formula - H2O, but instead of light hydrogen atoms (protium), it contains heavy hydrogen atoms (deuterium).
Dogs, rats, mice and other mammals die after about a week of regular consumption of such water due to the replacement of more than 25% of light hydrogen with heavy hydrogen in their tissues. A person can theoretically drink two glasses of “heavy water” without harm to health. In this case, after a few days, deuterium will be completely eliminated from the body.
Carcinogens are formed
As a rule, the water that we boil for our food needs is treated with bleach. When heated to 100 degrees Celsius, chlorine enters chemical reaction With organic substances, resulting in the formation of carcinogens. This is another significant reason why water should not be boiled again. With each subsequent heat treatment, the concentration of carcinogens increases, and these substances are known to provoke the development cancer diseases in the human body.
How to boil water correctly?
Boiled liquid is no longer useful, but repeated processing makes it harmful. Therefore, before the next procedure for heating water for tea, follow these simple rules:
- Use fresh water each time you boil.
- Is it possible to boil water a second time? - You can, but it’s definitely not necessary! You should not repeat boiling, or add fresh liquid to processed residues.
- It is advisable to let the water sit for several hours before boiling.
- When using a thermos, do not cap it immediately after pouring boiling water into it. Do this in a few minutes.
- Keep an eye on the container in which you boil water. Immediately descale the kettle - you can use citric acid or vinegar for this.
- You don’t have to think long about how long you need to boil water. Wait until the water turns white due to saturation with air bubbles and turn it off. Don't wait until it starts to bubble and splash. Remember that the longer water boils, the less it becomes and the higher the concentration of carcinogens. This is why you cannot boil water for a long time.
Important! Boiling for more than 20 minutes completely changes the structure of the water.
Any thrifty housewife knows that water intended for drinking can be boiled no more than once. However, the physicochemical mechanism of this prohibition can only be explained in the field molecular physics and chemistry. Despite the preservation of the organoleptic characteristics of the liquid during the boiling process, its structure and composition of substances change. Why you can’t boil water twice is a scientific fact confirmed by experiments. This phenomenon caused by several reasons.
Physico-chemical characteristics of water
The structure of a water molecule is known from the course school chemistry. It consists of two hydrogen atoms connected to one oxygen atom. Chemical formula water H2O. The liquid is colorless, transparent, tasteless and odorless. Tap and natural water (river, lake, spring) contains many dissolved mineral chemical impurities, most of which are harmful to the human body. Besides, natural water contains complex high molecular weight organic compounds, microflora and microfauna.
Why you can't boil water twice - this is a scientific fact
The main purpose of boiling water is to destroy harmful and pathogenic microorganisms that die when the temperature of the liquid rises.
Without denying the correctness of all the above scientific facts, a completely legitimate question arises - why can't you drink distilled water? ? There are no prohibitions here, but it has been noted that the distillate, which has neither taste nor smell, also negatively affects human health. Moreover, there is no consensus among scientists about the reasons for this phenomenon. According to some scientists, in distilled water, which has gone through the steam stage and then condensed again, the direction of the charge changes and the magnitude of dipole moment. To restore its original properties, some healers recommend distilled water, which has high degree cleaning and, from a chemical point of view, absolutely harmless to humans, freeze. It is recommended to use melted liquid for drinking and cooking.
The water we drink must be of high quality, since our health and well-being directly depend on it. But, since we have something vaguely resembling real water in our tap, many people start boiling it twice to improve the quality. Is this really so?
Does prolonged boiling really improve the quality of tap water? Or is it still impossible to boil the kettle twice?
What happens to water when it boils?
Tap water, which we often use in everyday life, contains a mass harmful substances. Here you can find not only chlorine, which is used for disinfection, but also various heavy compounds. Drinking such water without pre-treatment (boiling) is strictly not recommended.
As water begins to boil, organochlorine compounds are formed. And what? longer water boils, the more such compounds are formed. Organochlorine compounds (dioxins and carcinogens) have a depressing effect on our body. And the point is not that the result can be felt immediately after drinking water of this quality. All this will accumulate in the body enough for a long time until it results in consequences in the form of chronic diseases.
You've probably noticed that boiled water tastes different. This is also the merit of dioxins; the more of them, the harder the water turns out. But at the same time, chlorine itself has a much more unpleasant effect on the body. That is why it is simply not worth drinking unboiled water. Pediatricians even recommend boiling it for bathing babies. Chlorine can cause skin peeling, itching and other unpleasant consequences, especially in young children.
What happens if you boil water for a long time?
Here the result is natural; dioxins are formed during the boiling process, and the longer you boil, the more of these compounds will be formed. True, in order to bring their content to critical level(to feel the immediate effect on your body), the liquid will have to be boiled not two, but even twenty times. 
At the same time, do not forget that the taste of water changes, and accordingly, the second boiled water is already far from ideal. This will change the taste of the tea or coffee you were about to brew. Employees of various companies and offices often sin like this; they are simply too lazy to go and get water again.
Is it dangerous to boil water several times?
Unfortunately, no one can answer this question unequivocally. The concentration of organochlorine compounds increases with each boiling, but their content will not be so significant as to cause poisoning or death. Perhaps the main disadvantage of repeated boiling is the change in the taste of the water. This greatly spoils tea or coffee and prevents you from enjoying the full taste of these drinks.
At the same time, the content of microbes in boiled water(turn on the kettle at least several times in a row) decreases after the first boil. Everything that could not survive at a temperature of 100 degrees died, and what was able to survive would not be killed by the second or third boiling. The boiling point is constant and equal to 100 degrees; if you re-boil the water, the boiling point will not become higher.
Boiling also removes so-called hardness salts from water, since they have a lower boiling point. They settle on the kettle in the form of scale, as you can see for yourself. 
In any case, whether to boil or not to boil water several times is up to you to decide. However, many experts believe that you cannot boil water twice, since the process of accumulation of organochlorine compounds in the body still occurs (despite the insignificant concentration), and no one knows what this can lead to in the future. So is it worth taking risks and then looking for the cause of your ailments?
