300,000 Lancashire homes told to boil water after parasite found

[MusicMan]

There was a cryptosporidium outbreak in Sydney a couple of years ago.
Residents were advised that the spores are tiny enough to go through most filters, but apparently the reverse Osmosis filters were OK.
I don't know if boiling is sufficient to kill them.

 

[Chad]

Looks like they got an up close image of the parasite:

That's the one! Shared.

There was a cryptosporidium outbreak in Sydney a couple of years ago.
Residents were advised that the spores are tiny enough to go through most filters, but apparently the reverse Osmosis filters were OK.
I don't know if boiling is sufficient to kill them.

I understand the advice has been to those with water filters, that they will need to be replaced once the contamination threat is clear. Filters aint cheap so people are understandably annoyed. This may not apply to reverse osmosis filters obviously but seems for the majority it does.

Some have said it needs to be a rolling boil to guarantee killing the parasite but then anything above (something like) 65C is acceptable to wash dishes - according to the advice, because people were asking about dishwashers.

From today (day 5 of the contamination notice)

Lancashire residents told to keep boiling tap water

United Utilities advises homes around Preston, Chorley and Blackpool to carry on with precautions after small levels of cryptosporidium bug found in supply

Lancashire residents told to keep boiling tap water

Monday 10 August 2015 09.09 BST
Last modified on Monday 10 August 2015 09.40 BST

Hundreds of thousands of people in Lancashire have been warned to continue boiling tap water.

United Utilities first issued the advice last Thursday, after tests at one of its water treatment plants discovered traces of the microscopic bug cryptosporidium, which can cause sickness and diarrhoea.

It said it was making progress in tackling the problem, which it maintained posed a very low health risk but the precaution needed to stay in place.

The affected households cover a large area of Lancashire including Blackpool, Preston, Chorley and the Fylde coast.

United is advising customers to boil their water and then let it cool for all drinking, food preparation and teeth brushing.
Lancashire residents urged to boil drinking water
Read more

People can continue to use tap water without boiling for general domestic purposes such as bathing, flushing toilets or washing clothes.


[...]

_http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/aug/10/lancashire-boiling-tap-water-united-utilities-cryptosporidium?CMP=twt_gu

And from United Utilities (the provider):

Boiled water notice for customers in parts of Lancashire

UPDATE: Monday 10 August 7am

Good morning. The boil water advice is still in place today, Monday 10 August, in Lancashire as a precaution - but we are making good progress and the situation is improving.

We are very sorry for the continuing inconvenience. Thank you very much, to all of our customers in Lancashire, for their patience and understanding whilst we try to get things back to normal.

We are still working round the clock, with our partner agencies, to give support and advice to customers, especially the most vulnerable. If you are vulnerable or you know someone who is, who needs extra assistance, please call us on 0345 672 3723. You can also speak to us on Twitter: @unitedutilities

This remains a very unusual incident; the risk to health is very low but we will not take chances with public health so please do continue to boil your water as a sensible precaution.

We will be confirming the times of our customer centres below very soon - we're out today.

We will continue to update our FAQs as more questions that we think are helpful to share come in.

Monday 10 August - customer information centres
We have customer information points open for you to come and talk to us - we'll confirm the exact opening times for these for Monday and Tuesday asap this morning (Mon 10 Aug). You can find us at:

Preston Harris Library, Market Square, Preston, PR1 2PP (opening 9am)
Gateway Customer Contact Centre, Civic Centre, West Paddock, Leyland, PR25 1DH (opening 9am)
Morrisons Chorley, PR7 3BE (opening 8am)
Morrisons Squires Gate, Blackpool, FY4 2AY (opening 8am)
YMCA Fleetwood, The Esplanade, Fleetwood, FY7 6HF (opening 9am)

_http://www.unitedutilities.com/lancashire-boiled-water.aspx