Chlorine Dioxide - Chemical Safety Facts

Chlorine dioxide is used to disinfect drinking water around the world. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chlorine dioxide is added to drinking water to protect people from harmful bacteria and other microorganisms. EPA recognizes chlorine dioxide use as a drinking water disinfectant, and it is included in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Guidelines for Drinking-water Quality.

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In its pure form, chlorine dioxide is a hazardous gas but most people are “not likely” to breathe air containing dangerous levels of chlorine dioxide as it rapidly breaks down in air to chlorine gas and oxygen. For workers who use chlorine dioxide, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration (OSHA) regulates the level of chlorine dioxide in workplace air for safety. OSHA has set a Permissible Exposure Limit (PEL) for chlorine dioxide at 0.1 parts per million (ppm), or 0.3 milligrams (mg) per cubic meters (m3) for workers using chlorine dioxide for general industrial purposes. OSHA also has a PEL for chlorine dioxide for the construction industry. Chlorine dioxide is always made at the location where it is used.

How is chlorine dioxide produced?

While many methods have been discovered to produce chlorine dioxide both at laboratory and commercial levels, our focus here will be to explain to you how our product PERFORMACIDE® generates chloride dioxide for practical on-the-spot use. Here's a section of our product label which shows you the ingredients of PERFORMACIDE®:

Active Ingredient:

Sodium Chlorite: ..................................................................................... 30.5%

Other Ingredients: .................................................................................. 69.5%

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Total: ..................................................................................................... 100.0%

The active ingredient is sodium chlorite (NaClO2) which is the source of the chloride dioxide. But the 'other ingredients' are equally important, one of them being an acid. Without any water, the ingredients will stay as they are in the PERFORMACIDE® sachet and will not react. When the contents of the sachet are exposed to water, they find a medium to react with each other. As mentioned, sodium chlorite is the compound which releases chloride dioxide, but only when it is reduced by an acid in an aqueous medium (water). The result is chlorine dioxide. This can be represented as:

NaClO2 + H+ -> ClO2 + NaCl + H2O

Sodium chlorite + Acid -> Chlorine dioxide + Sodium chloride + Water

Sodium chloride is the common table salt. Even though chlorine dioxide is a gas at room temperature, and is released in a gaseous form in the above reaction, it is being released into water, the medium in which the whole reaction is taking place. Now an interesting fact about chlorine dioxide is that it is highly soluble in water, it is about 10 times more soluble than chlorine. So, when you use one of our 'liquid delivery' systems, and you prepare it according to the given instructions, the solution you get will have chlorine dioxide dissolved in it. When you apply that solution to surfaces for disinfection, the dissolved chlorine dioxide will start doing its work.

How does chlorine dioxide kill harmful microorganisms?

Chlorine dioxide eliminates harmful microorganisms through a process called oxidation. All microorganisms are made up organic molecules such as proteins, polysaccharides and nucleic acids. Oxidation can denature proteins and other organic molecules in the walls and inside microorganisms. When their protective walls are disrupted and their metabolic machinery jeopardized, deadly microorganisms die. Chlorine dioxide is a powerful oxidizing agent. The term microorganism is a broad one. It includes bacteria, viruses and fungi. Even the walls of tough bacterial spores are organic in nature, and thus susceptible to the action of chlorine dioxide. Microorganisms do not have the inherent ability to counter chlorine dioxide's oxidative attack. This leads us to the good news: microorganisms cannot develop resistance to chlorine dioxide.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Chlorine Dioxide Effervescent Tablet.