[d.a.]

There’s a couple of reasons for considering boiling or otherwise disinfecting rainwater collected from a roof. Despite a “first wash” being discarded, there may still be bird feces washing off the roof. Different roofing materials may hold onto feces for longer (wood shingle, asphalt shingle, versus metal sheeting), and feces can carry pathogens & parasites.

Another reason is the gutters themselves can harbor bacteria and mold, which also holds the potential to make a person ill.

Then there’s the debate about roofing materials themselves releasing chemicals into the rainwater that may be bad for you, but no boiling or disinfecting will take care of that issue, except maybe reverse-osmosis or distillation, if that. FWIW…

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