Chlorine bleach vs Oxygen bleach

[ncmtns]

I know a couple drops of chlorine bleach can be used to disinfect drinking water. How about Oxygen bleach? Supposedly Oxygen bleach is much less caustic than Chlorine bleach but much safer environmentally. Any thoughts?

[jeremywerlin]

Does Aquamira fall into this catagory? Chlorine dioxcide?

[egilbe]

Bleach is an oxidizer. Don't fall for the marketing hype calling it another name.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleach

[theinfamousj]

Oxygen bleach is a super harsh peroxide. It isn't an effective water sterilization method. And while oxyclean and the like may be gentler on fabrics, they are like hydrogen peroxide ++ to sensitive tissues like your eyes or throat.

Chlorine bleach is sodium hypochlorite. It works through a different chemical mechanism than peroxides do.

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[Another Kevin]

Peroxides can be used for water disinfection - and work pretty much the same way halogens such as chlorine and iodine do - by oxidizing and denaturing proteins.

They're unsuitable for trail use:

1. Dose required is too high - enough to have human toxicity issues unless the peroxide is subsequently quenched
2. Peroxides are less stable even than hypochorites - and chlorine bleach is also marginally unsuitable (limited effectiveness against Giardia/Cryptosporidium/Entamoeba; unknown concentration owing to degradation)

I bet that someone could make a decent water treatment system using carbamide-peroxide (hydrogen peroxide-urea) or sodium percarbonate, but I'm not volunteering to be the guinea pig. For the latter (the active ingredient in products like OxyClean), you'd need some way to neutralize the sodium carbonate that would result from the peroxide release, after the treatement time.

[jensaito]

As I think, this is not a best decision to purify water in such way, because of its toxic effect. It's better to use ultraviolet purifiers and squeeze filters. Or Katadyn Micropur tablets. The taste of Katadyn purified water is unusual. But that's the matter of time.

[walkinmyshoes]

Just checked out AquaProve for purification of drinking water. Chlorine dioxide is the active ingredient of Aquaprove. Chlorine dioxide is less corrosive than chlorine and superior for the control of legionella bacteria. Also, it's more effective as a disinfectant than chlorine in most circumstances against waterborne pathogenic agents such as viruses, bacteria and protozoa – including the cysts of Giardia and the oocysts of Cryptosporidium. Thus, if you're using a bleach with chlorine dioxide it's ok, but if a blech contains only chlorine, it's not so good.

Oxygen bleach is hydrogen peroxide with some sodium and sometimes carbon added to it to form a compound that releases the hydrogen peroxide when added to water. Thus, you can also use oxygen bleach. IMO, the best way is a hydrogen peroxide.

[MisterMoon]

FWIW, practically all municipal water systems use chlorine dioxide for disinfection. It has the greater oxidizing power at lower dosages than elemental chlorine gas, hypochlorite (household bleach), chloroisocyanurates (Aquatabs), or peroxides. Another advantage for chlorine dioxide is that it remains stable in the presence of contaminants that cause other disinfectants to lose their effectiveness. Peroxides are notoriously poor performers in this regard, and decompose badly in the presence of organics, certain metal ions, and temperature.

The best disinfectants IMO are halogen based, meaning they contain either chlorine or iodine as the active ingredient. Bromine works too, but is not cleared by the EPA for potable water. My first choice is chloroisocyanurates (MSR Aquatabs), chlorine dioxide (Katydn Micropur), and finally tetraglycine hydroperiodide, an iodine releaser (Potable Aqua.)
This is an area I don't recommend playing around with do-it-yourself approaches. If you use a substance e.g. hydrogen peroxide or sodium percarbonate (oxi-clean) you may not get the effect you are seeking.

The most important thing is to use only products that are EPA registered for use in potable water. The second most important thing is to use them as directed. If you don't apply the correct dose or allow for the correct contact time, you might as well not use anything at all. And if you apply too high a dose, you will kill all the microbes in your water but you may be doing it at risk to yourself.


Full disclosure: I've been working in the disinfectant/industrial biocide industry for 20 years. The company I work for used to own the company that makes Aqua Tabs. It matters to me not what products anyone uses, but I do care that people use products correctly.

[TexasBob]

.........I bet that someone could make a decent water treatment system using carbamide-peroxide (hydrogen peroxide-urea) ...............

Well here is a source of 6.5% caramide- peroxide you can get at most drug stores. I think I will pass on water purification with it and just stick to using it to remove ear wax.

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