Is iodine or chlorine better for purifying water?

There are two primary chemicals used to purify water: iodine and chlorine. Both are lightweight, low cost and easy to use. Iodine has been proven effective in killing off viruses, bacteria and protozoa. Chlorine bleach is the second chemical purifier.

Is iodine better than chlorine?

Iodine effectively kills protozoa, bacteria, and viruses in 30 minutes. Chlorine dioxide kills viruses, bacteria, and Giardia in 30 minutes, but it is recommended that you wait up to 4 hours to kill Cryptosporidium.

What does iodine do to purify water?

Chlorine and iodine work well to kill bacteria and viruses. However, these disinfectants will not kill parasites like Cryptosporidium. It can be hard to know if there’s a risk of parasites, especially in an emergency. If you can’t boil water, the best way to make water safe is by doing more than 1 type of treatment.

How does iodine sterilize water?

Common household iodine (or “tincture of iodine”). Add five drops of 2\% tincture of iodine to each quart or liter of water that you are disinfecting. If the water is cloudy or colored, add 10 drops of iodine. Stir and let the water stand for at least 30 minutes before use.

Is iodine in drinking water?

The mean concentration of total iodine in drinking-water in the USA is 4 µg/litre, and the maximum concentration is 18 µg/litre (2). This is presumably predominantly iodide. The main natural sources of dietary iodide are seafood (200–1000 µg/kg) and seaweed (0.1– 0.2\% iodide by weight).

Is chlorine used to purify water?

Chlorine is a highly effective method of disinfection. However, while in the pipes it produces small amounts of chemicals (called “disinfection by-products”) if the source water has higher levels of dirt or germs that may react with chlorine. Chlorine is also used up quickly in water systems.

What is the purpose of adding chlorine and what are its substitutes?

But alternatives to chlorine are turning out to have risks of their own, says a scientist who wrote an analysis in the journal Science. The change in disinfectants comes a century after water systems in the U.S. began adding chlorine to prevent the spread of diseases like cholera and typhoid.

What are alternative disinfectants?

Chlorine dioxide, ozone, organic acids, peroxyacetic acid, electrolyzed oxidizing water and hydrogen peroxide are the main alternative sanitizing agents that gained interest in recent years.

How long can you drink iodine water?

A review of the human trials on the safety of iodine ingestion indicates that neither the maximum recommended dietary dose (2 mg/day) nor the maximum recommended duration of use (3 weeks) has a firm basis.

How do you make iodine water?

Dissolve KI in about 20-30 ml of distilled water. Add iodine and heat gently with constant mixing until iodine is dissolved. Dilute to 100 ml with distilled water. Store in amber glass-stoppered bottle in the dark.

What happens if there is no iodine present in water?

As water is one of the natural sources of iodine, its absence in water can cause several diseases or disorder in human body such as goiter, cretinism, hypothyroidism, decreased fertility rate and mental retardation.