Water Purification: Chlorine Bleach

OA Guide to Water Purification-Chemical Purification
http://www.princeton.edu/~oa/manual/water.shtml

This material is taken from Chapter 4 - Hygiene & Water Purification from The Backpackers Field Manual by Rick Curtis.

Chemical Purification

There are two types of chemical treatment: those using iodine and those using chlorine. There are a variety of products on the market, so follow the directions on the bottle. Be advised that many of the tablets have an expiration date and become ineffective after that point. Also, once the bottle has been opened, the tablets must be used within a certain period. When in doubt, buy a new bottle. Remember that chemical purification methods may only be partially effective, depending on the water temperature.

General Chemical Treatment Procedures ... ---CONTINUED---

**Cross Posted in Chlorine Tablets

How to Find Water and Make It Safe to Drink
https://grandpappy.org/hwater.htm

Liquid Chlorine Bleach (Sodium Hypochlorite) - Either 5.25% or 6% StrengthKills Bacteria and Viruses.
Not effective against all Protozoa.
Does Not Neutralize Harmful Chemicals or Radioactive Particles.

Relatively Clear Water - Use 2 drops of bleach per quart of water or 8 drops per gallon.
Cloudy Water - Use 4 drops of bleach per quart of water or 16 drops per gallon.

The water should ... ---CONTINUED---

Emergency Water Purification Calculator
http://www.csgnetwork.com/h2oemergencypurifycalc.html

This calculator requires the use of Javascript enabled and capable browsers. In an emergency, to purify drinking water, two methods are most often used. They are boiling the water and adding chlorine (household bleach, such as Chlorox) to it. This calculator determines the quantity of bleach and water mixture to meet the desired emergency water purification mixture, based on the condition of the target water. Most emergency experts and health officials suggest a mixture of 8 drops of bleach to a gallon of generally clear water for best results. Based on environment or cloudiness of the water, you may want to change the quantity of drops to 16 per gallon of cloudy or murky water. Enter the maximum possible volume of water container. The entry should be in gallons. Enter the desired drops of the bleach per gallon and select the appropriate water condition from the drop down box. Click on Calculate and read the calculated result in drops that should be added to the volume of water specified. Please remember that this is a guideline.  ---CONTINUED---

You can use a non-scented, household chlorine bleach that contains a chlorine compound to disinfect water.
https://www.epa.gov/ground-water-and-drinking-water/emergency-disinfection-drinking-water

You can use a non-scented, household chlorine bleach that contains a chlorine compound to disinfect water.

Do not use non-chlorine bleach to disinfect water. Typically, household chlorine bleaches will be 5.25% available chlorine. Follow the procedure written on the label. When the necessary procedure is not given, find the percentage of available chlorine on the label and use the information in the following table as a guide. (Remember, 1/8 teaspoon and 8 drops are about the same quantity.)

Available Chlorine: 1%

10 Drops per Quart per Quart of Clear Water
40 Drops per Gallon of Clear Water
10 Drops per Liter of Clear Water

Available Chlorine: 4-6%

2 Drops per Quart of Clear Water
8 Drops per Gallon of Clear Water (1/8 teaspoon)
2 Drops per Liter of Clear Water

Available Chlorine: 7-10%

1 Drop per Quart of Clear Water
4 Drops per Gallon of Clear Water
1 Drop per Liter of Clear Water

(If the strength of the bleach is unknown, add ten drops per quart or liter of filtered and settled water. Double the amount of chlorine for cloudy, murky or colored water or water that is extremely cold.)

Mix the treated water thoroughly and allow it to stand, preferably covered, for 30 minutes. The water should have a slight chlorine odor. If not, repeat the dosage and allow the water to stand for an additional 15 minutes. If the treated water has too strong a chlorine taste, allow the water to stand exposed to the air for a few hours or pour it from one clean container to another several times.

9 Problems With Using Bleach for Water Treatment
https://rethinksurvival.com/9-problems-with-using-bleach-for-water-treatment/

(SNIP) ... Now, while I understand their reasoning–mostly likely because you’re expected to have bleach on hand–it’s just not that good of a choice, especially when there are better options in the form of quality gravity water filters. In fact, bleach would be an almost last-ditch effort to purify water in my household should the need arise.

Why? Here’s several reasons… ---CONTINUED---

This is one of the best articles on Bleach I have ever seen, although it doesn't go into detail on many points. I would recommend printing it out and putting it into your "things to remember after the grid goes down" book, but first I would also recommend reading all of the attached articles.

The printed one can be used to jog your memory on some of the details in the linked articles, if needed.

One of the linked articles lit up a lightbulb in my brain. I have an allergic reaction to any and all produce from California, and now I know why: They use a chemical I am allergic to, to neutralized the chlorine in their water systems, and then use that water to water their crops. Thankfully, there are only about a dozen people in the world allergic to that chem, so others don't have to worry about it. (And I always thought it was because that chem is produced by oranges, and thought they must produce so much orange that it is simply in their soil.)

From the NEIGHBORHOOD EMERGENCY NOTEBOOK available at 3-Steps.org site
http://3steps.org/58.html

Disinfecting: Again, according to the Red Cross, “The only agent used to purify water should be household liquid bleach. Add 16 drops of bleach per gallon of water if the water is cloudy, stir and let stand for 30 minutes. (If it’s clear, only add 8 drops.) If the water does not have a slight bleach odor [after 30 minutes], repeat the dosage and let stand another 15 minutes.” Use household bleach (5.25% sodium hypochlorite as its only active ingredient).

How much bleach to use for purifying water (according to the Red Cross):

       amount of water: 1 quart
           clear water 2 drops
           cloudy water 4 drops
       amount of water: 1 gallon
           clear water8 drops
           cloudy water 16 drops
       amount of water: 5 gallons
           clear water1/2 teaspoon
           cloudy water 1 teaspoon
       amount of water: 55 gallons
           clear water5 1/2 teaspoons
           cloudy water 11 teaspoons

Well, to add to our list of things that challenge us, Clorox has been changing the concentration of its bleach.

A few years ago, they decided to up the concentration from 6.15% to 8.25%. Of course, most of our water purification and disinfectant instructions are written for 5% concentration.

http://blog.rjschinner.com/clorox-discontinues-182oz-and-96oz-6-15-bleach-to-make-way-for-8-25-concentration/

But, let's through a monkey wrench into things, and change the concentration, again. First they changed it in 2017, and then again, this year.

https://www.troublefreepool.com/threads/clorox-changed-percentage-of-bleach-again.151784/

I strongly suspect the latest change is linked to the Chlorine shortage caused by a fire at a chemical plant in Louisiana, that caused by hurricane Laura. A bottle I picked up a couple weeks ago showed 4.5%.

More changes might be forthcoming, based on the following article. Or not. A lot of these class action suits are strictly for political purposes. OTOH, the box warning on the back of the bottle does give me pause, and it is shown near the end of the linked article.
https://www.classaction.org/news/clorox-splash-less-bleach-too-weak-to-disinfect-and-sanitize-class-action-claims
NOTE: suit was filed in Aug 2020 and dismissed in Apr 2021, but the articles are still worth looking at, to note that what we might expect might not be what is delivered.
https://www.expertinstitute.com/resources/insights/covid-19-clorox-lawsuit-dismissed-what-this-means-for-the-future-of-false-advertising/

Clorox had argued that its label makes no statement or suggestion that its Splash-less Bleach is suitable for sanitization or disinfection, and refers to its small print stating such. The court agreed, finding that its label contained no misleading words or images that conflicted with its disclaimer. The court explained that comparison to the regular formula wouldn’t lead a reasonable consumer to believe it had disinfecting capabilities.

I don't use bleach, I've stocked up with pool shock and will make my own if need be. It has a longer, a lot longer shelf life.

Pool shock has sky rocketed in price, but still cheaper then bleach and longer shelf live.

rick1 wrote:I don't use bleach, I've stocked up with pool shock and will make my own if need be. It has a longer, a lot longer shelf life.

Pool shock has sky rocketed in price, but still cheaper then bleach and longer shelf live.

If things ever get back to "normal" I will probably get some, but it wasn't an option for me, a couple years ago, when I began (again) to build my stores.