Boil Water Advisory - Additional information for the public

Keeping Healthy During a Boil Water Advisory

 

Living with a boil water advisory means that you will have to make changes with how you use water in your home. The following are some key points to remember in order to keep your family healthy.

Use boiled or bottled water for drinking, making infant formula and juices, cooking, making ice, washing fruits, vegetables or brushing teeth. Bring your water to a rapid rolling boil and boil it for one minute. Place the pot on the back burner to avoid scalds and boil only as much as you can lift without spilling. Throw out all ice, disinfect the ice cube trays and make ice using boiled, cooled water.

Adults and teens can shower in untreated water as long as they don’t swallow it. Older children can be given a shower with a hand held showerhead, avoiding the face, and younger children can be sponge bathed because they are likely to swallow tub water.

 

Because the boil water advisory has been issued as a precautionary measure and there is no outbreak of human illness, there is no need for additional hand disinfection with bleach solution or alcohol.

 

Other points to remember:

• Your dishwasher is safe to use if it has a hot setting. Otherwise after the cycle soak dishes for one minute in a bleach solution of 1 oz (30 ml) bleach to 1 gallon (4.5 litres) water.

• Use boiled water or a bleach solution (see above) for hand washing dishes.

• Filtered water is NOT safe for drinking and cooking and should be brought to a rolling boil for one minute before using.

• The water is not safe to fill a child’s wading pool.

• You can continue doing laundry the way you usually do.

• When the BWA is lifted, run cold water faucets for 1 minute before using, flush garden hoses by running cold water through them for 1 minute, run water softeners through a regeneration cycle. All in-line or stand alone water filters must be replaced.

For more information about staying healthy during the Boil Water Advisory, call the Renfrew County and District Health Unit at 732-8654 or 1-800-267-1097 or visit our website at www.rcdhu.com

Renfrew  County  and  District  Health  Unit     "Promoting Healthy People in a Healthy Environment"

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