Last Updated on January 5, 2024
Friday, June 21, 2019 — The city of Long Beach, NY issued a Boil Water Alert after its water tested positive for E. coli, as well as for the larger class of bacteria known as coliform. While these alerts are under effect, boiled or bottled water must be used for drinking, making ice, washing dishes, brushing teeth, and preparing food. The Long Beach Boil Water Advisory is just one of many such alerts 
issued. While this particular advisory has ended, it is a good reminder of the need for UV-C disinfection in communities across the country.
During & After the Long Beach Boil Water Advisory
During the 3-day span of the alert, the city provided its residents with frequent status updates via its website . They took several opportunities to stress the importance of boiling for one minute, in accordance with emergency procedures listed by the CDC and EPA . They also notified residents that free bottled water was available for pickup at certain sites.
As highlighted in this blog post, boil water alerts can make simple tasks quite complex and cause homeowners to second-guess every action. While the Long Beach Boil Water Advisory updates highlighted the need to use boiled water for various actions, they did not address several components of how these alerts affect food and hygiene routines:
- Fresh food washed with tap water or beverages made with tap water need to be thrown out due to possible contamination.
- Food preparation surfaces must be disinfected.
- For homeowners without a dishwasher, the CDC recommends soaking hand washed dishes in a 1-gallon basin of warm water mixed with 1 teaspoon of non-scented, household bleach. The dishes must then be air dried.
According to the CDC , all faucets, water coolers, and automatic ice makers must be flushed upon the lifting of a boil water alert. Water softeners must be run through a regeneration cycle. All point-of-entry and point-of-use water filters must be changed.
The Benefits of UV-C Disinfection
For homeowners with point-of-entry UV-C water disinfection installed, all routines can continue as normal during a boil water advisory. Homes with point-of-use UV-C purifiers will greatly reduce their hassles during the alert, only having to disinfect water lines not connected to their UV-C system. Atlantic Ultraviolet Corporation® has several UV-C water purifier product lines for residential and commercial use. All our UV-C water disinfection systems are quality engineered in the USA.
Ultraviolet technology has been recognized for decades as a safe, powerful, rapid, and chemical-free method of disinfection. Germicidal ultraviolet lamps emit ultraviolet wavelengths at 254 nanometers, a level that is lethal to virtually all bacteria, virus, and cysts, including E. coli and those in the coliform class.
Learn More & Shop Our Products
Made or Assembled in the USA of Type 304 or Type 316 stainless steel, the UV water treatment systems from Atlantic Ultraviolet Corporation® are constructed of the highest quality materials and use germicidal UV-C lamps to purify water.
Learn Here! Ultraviolet.com
- Learn about UV Water & Liquid Purifiers
- Download Ultraviolet Water Documents from our PDF Library
- Visit our Application-Specific Page: UV-C for Water Disinfection During Boil Water Advisories
- View all the applications that can benefit from Germicidal UV-C
- Learn about STER-L-RAY® Germicidal Ultraviolet Lamps
Video & PowerPoint
- View our Boil Water Alert PowerPoint presentation on SlideShare
- Watch our Boil Water Alert video on YouTube
Shop Here! BuyUltraviolet.com
- Shop UV Water Purifiers for use during Boil Water Advisories
- Shop STER-L-RAY® Germicidal UV Lamps
- Compare all models with our UV Water Purifier Comparison Chart
Contact Our UV Application Specialists
- Call 1-631-273-0500, Monday – Friday 7am to 6pm EST
- Email Sales@AtlanticUV.com
- Fill out our contact form
CM-000340
