According to the World Health Organization, chlorine dioxide is a safe and effective way to treat and purify water making it safe to be transported, stored, and safe for drinking water. Chlorine dioxide kills all known microbial pathogens, including parasites, viruses, toxins, and harmful bacteria in water. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reinforces the use of chlorine dioxide for making water safe to drink.
Other approved uses include the industrial application of chlorine dioxide as a fungicide, bactericide, virucide, germicide, and parasitical pathogenic killer for general sanitization in all food, dairy, beverage, and food processing plants. It is a method of keeping livestock safe and free from pathogens, as well as fish and fowl processing as well.
Chlorine Dioxide in Survival Kits
Recently, there is a trend of finding chlorine dioxide in survival kits and emergency first aid kits due to its efficacy in making questionable water safe to drink. In this way, it has been used by the military and outdoorsmen to treat water that may be otherwise infected or unsafe to drink. Just as it is used in municipal water treatment and distribution, it can also be made and used in the field as needed.
The most common format to find in a survival kit is the chlorine dioxide two-part water purification drops. The reason is that these drops can be stored in separate bottles indefinitely, as chlorine dioxide is not made until these two parts are designed.
Chlorine dioxide water purification drops are by far the best way to get chlorine dioxide in your survival kit, plus when the power goes out, or your municipal water system gets contaminated or fails, you will be able to have your own DIY water purification kit and do it yourself.
Homemade Chlorine Dioxide
How to make your own homemade chlorine dioxide by using a two-part kit, like the Natural Antibacterial Cleaner Solution (NACS) Water Purification Drops.
These drops come with a small manual. The manual says to make a quart of safe drinking water,
- Start with a dry glass or non-metallic container
- Put three drops of Part 1 and three drops of Part 2 together in a glass
- Wait 30 seconds and it will change to a yellow color
- Add the activated drops to your quart of water
- Shake or stir the container (plastic or glass) thoroughly
- Let stand for 10 minutes (really cold water for 20 minutes)
- Your quart of water is ready to drink or cook with
- Keep the container tightly capped and out of the sun
Chlorine Dioxide Corrosive
There is some concern regarding chlorine dioxide’s corrosivity and a little knowledge will help us to understand how to approach the issue of chlorine dioxide corrosiveness.
In the two-part creation process, the resulting acid-activated chlorine dioxide mixture does interact with metal. This is why only glass or P.E.T. containers are used for water treatment in the field. This form of chlorine dioxide can be corrosive to metals except for nickel over time in the long term.
On the other hand, chlorine dioxide solution or CDS 3000 is not corrosive as it is created over time from gaseous chlorine dioxide via the distillation process.
This is a pure chlorine dioxide solution that is used in fine detail sanitization from electronics, medical supplies, and sensitive food processing facilities without any risk of corrosion.
