Re: mms and my toddler

Hello Oceanman,

To disinfect wilderness water you need 4 PPM free ClO2. The problem with using citric acid is that only about 10% of the available ClO2 is released as free ClO2, so you end up having to use a lot more NaClO2 and that results in excessive chlorite levels in the water after purification.

In an emergency you could mix 1.1 ml of 28% NaClO2 with 1.1 ml of 50% citric acid , let it activate for 10 minutes and add that to 1 gallon of water. If you filter the water to remove giardia and cryptosporidium, the water should be ready to drink in 15 - 30 minutes. If you don't filter, it will take 4 hours to disinfect the water.

Using citric acid to activate the sodium chlorite, you need to use 246.4 mg of chlorite. When you use HCl to activate, the amount of chlorite drops to 25 mg.

Even using HCl you end up with more chlorite than is allowed, but the assumption is that you will only be in "the wilderness" for a short period of time.

If you have water that has already been disinfected and simply want to keep it fresh during storage you would add 2 drops of 28% NaClO2 to a gallon of water. This will prevent biofilm from forming in the water during extended storage.

Tom