Using Bleach To Make Water Potable

The President of the United States mused about consuming (and injecting) disinfectants during a press conference last week. This statement unsurprisingly triggered a backlash from medical experts, who were quick to point out the risks of doing such a thing. But in some instances, mixing disinfecting substances, such as bleach, with water, and then drinking that is a good idea, as it keeps you safe from danger.

That’s right, adding bleach or other disinfectants to drinking water that may contain deadly pathogens, like viruses, is a proven way to make that water safe to drink.

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Dilution is key to safely consuming bleach. The CDC recommends adding eight drops of unscented bleach per gallon of water, if that water is clear.

Check out more details about this over at Outside Online, and view the CDC flyer on how to make your potentially unsafe water safe to drink over here.

(Image Credit: ronymichaud/ Pixabay)

That's true. We use chlorine to prevent biological growths out of the well water we use. We have a special metering pump that puts out a set amount and we monitor the concentration going in and out. But we use a relatively *tiny* amount. They reference 8 drops of chlorine per gallon of water. It takes roughly 80,000 drops of liquid to make 1 gallon, so this literally a 1:10,000 ratio for dilution.

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Great Heavens. Speaking as a former chemical engineer who designed potable water systems, I marvel that this was a topic for a post on this site. Industrially, chlorine gas, chlorine bleach, calcium hypochlorite, ozone, and hydrogen peroxide are all used to disinfect water intended for drinking. Municipal water systems are typically chlorinated by injection of chlorine gas, due to its economy. Preppers such as myself know all about use of household bleach for purifying drinking water, and I have a supply of calcium hypochlorite granules and pool shock to use as backup. For those to whom this is all new, I recommend these links:
https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/how-to-use-pool-shock-to-purify-water/
https://www.backdoorsurvival.com/a-preppers-guide-to-bleach/

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hrm. I guess so, I just dont like the idea of bleach in my water. I mean, have u seen what it does to black pants?

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