We all
need to have some bleach on hand for daily sanitation and laundry needs. If our
drinking water should become compromised because of storms or because we are in
a remote area and uncertain as to how safe it is then we need to use bleach for
the disinfection the water if boiling the water is not possible. Boiling
drinking water provides the safest water.
To SAFELY
use bleach as a disinfectant or sterilizer you must have the proper measuring
and testing tools. These are an ‘eye dropper’ and ‘Chlorine Test Strips’. The
eye dropper can be purchased at any drug store for $1.50 and the chlorine test
strips from any swimming pool supply store for $6.00 to $30.00 for 50 test
strips. You will need to have two sizes or ranges of test strips; 1-25ppm and
1000-10000pmm. The chlorine test strips are very important especially if you
are storing water. With the test strips you can monitor the chlorine level
throughout the year. Remember, chlorine dissipates with age and this could leave
your stored water unprotected and unknown to you not safe to drink!
To
provide accurate information I researched the use of bleach from Universities
to major health and rescue organizations and came up with the following recipes
or dosing for the most common uses in disinfection and sanitizing. The bleach
should be between 5¼% to 6% concentration unscented household bleach.
Water Emergency Disinfection
2 ppm to
no more than 4 ppm (EPA Maximum recommended ppm)
1 quart =
2 drops
1 gallon
= 8 drops
5 gallons
= ¼ teaspoon
10
gallons = ½ teaspoon
50
gallons = 2½ teaspoons
(Instructions
from Clorox:)
When
boiling of water for 1 minute is not practical, water can be made potable by
using unscented bleach. Prior to addition of the sanitizer, remove all suspended
material by filtration or by allowing it to settle to the bottom.
Decant
the clarified contaminated water to a clean container and add 12 drops or 1/8
teaspoon of this product to 2 gallons of water (2 drops to 1 quart). Allow
the treated water to stand for 30 minutes. Properly treated water should
have a slight chlorine odor. If not, repeat dosage and allow the water to stand
an additional 15 minutes. The treated water can then be made palatable by
pouring it between clean containers several times.
Note; it
takes 45 minutes to kill Giardia Protozoan (common cause of diarrhea) with a 1
ppm chlorine level. So waiting 60 minutes before drinking treated water is a
good idea just incase you have Giardia in the raw water.
For
cloudy water, use 24 drops or 1/4 teaspoon of this product per 2 gallons of
water (3 drops to 1 quart). If no chlorine odor is apparent after 30 minutes,
repeat dosage and wait an additional 15 minutes.
Garden Vegetable Rinsing
¼ teaspoon
per 1 gallon water = 25 ppm (Clorox recommendation)
Thoroughly
clean all fruits and vegetables. Prepare a sanitizing solution of 25 ppm
available chlorine. Spray mist on submerge the fruit or vegetables and let rest
for 2 minutes then rinse with clean water.
Disinfecting Solution
½ cup per
1 gallon water = 2400 ppm (Clorox recommendation)
Apply solution
and let stand 5 minutes then rinse with clean water. (You can use this solution
in a trigger sprayer to get into difficult small spaces, just remember to spray
with clean water after the 5 minutes of soaking to rinse off all the chlorine).
A common
everyday disinfecting solution used for; Kitchen Countertops, Bathroom Areas,
Tubs and Showers, Toys, Garbage Cans, Refrigerator Interiors, most all hard
surfaces and items.
Sanitizing Cutting Boards, Food, Meat
Processing Equipment
1
cup per 1 gallon water = 5,000 ppm (CDC recommendation)
Bleach
solutions used for disinfecting must remain wet on the surface for an adequate
amount of time to be effective. This is often referred to as Contact Time or
Dwell Time and can vary depending on the dilution and type of microorganism you
are trying to kill. For example, a 10 minute contact time with a
higher-strength solution containing at least 5000 ppm is recommended by the
Center for Disease Control (CDC) for the hard-to-kill spore form of Clostridium
difficile. After sufficient contact time, the surface should be rinsed with
clean water to remove bleach residue. This helps to minimize surface damage and
is especially important when using bleach to disinfect toys or food-contact
surfaces.
Sources:
The above
information was taken from a variety of trustworthy sources including numerous
Universities. I have discovered that there is no golden rule that everyone
abides by when it comes to bleach/water mixing ratios for specific tasks. I
selected and posted the most commonly agreed to ratios.
Clorox:
This is
the most complete bleach water information I’ve found. Download and save!
Red Cross:
CDC:
EPA:
