Re: MMS vs. Hydrogen Peroxide

Hello Hveragerthi,

While chlorine and chlorine dioxide both have chlorine in their names, only chlorine chlorinates.

Chlorine forms THM's, chlorine dioxide does not.

Chlorine is ineffective in the presence of organic materials, chlorine dioxide does not have this problem.

Chlorine is only effective in a narrow PH range, chlorine dioxide works over a wide PH range.

I would be interested in reading the Journal of Health issue that talked about these problems. In the 1950's I am not sure they understood the proper CT values needed for disinfection. Both chlorine and chlorine dioxide are effective against hepatitis, so something went wrong during the process. Do you have a link to the article?

Hydrogen peroxide oxidizes everything it comes into contact with. Chlorine dioxide does not oxidize healthy tissue, so it does less damage to living things.

The main reason other disinfection methods are used to purify drinking water is that they are cheaper, or less involved in day to day operation. Chlorine dioxide is more expensive, and the equipment operation requires adjustments for various microbial loads presented in the raw water. Often chlorine dioxide is used as a pretreatment to knock most of the load down, then it is followed up by other methods.

Tom Tweet