*Storable Bucket Decontamination*
I was thinking about building this:
1 gal of water is 128 ounces
Liquid laundry bleach (normally a 5.25% solution of sodium hypochlorite) has a bad habit of losing strength over time. The idea here is to have a ready to go solution for long term storage. One way is to store dry pool 'chlorine', which is calcium hypochlorite. (refer article: Dry Chlorine for Water Disinfection by Osage.htm)
Osage says this:
"Now comes the math. In the case of my 70% chlorine powder, I want to go from something that's 70% chlorine to something else that's about 5% chlorine. That means I need to cut the strength by a dilution factor of "70-divided-by-5", or a dilution factor of fourteen. Use the strength given on the label of your dry chlorine for the "70" in my example. Since a fluid ounce (volume measure) of water weighs very close to an ounce (weight measure), we can use a shortcut. Weigh an ounce of pool chlorine powder (see below) and add it to "dilution-factor-minus-one" fluid ounces of water. In my example I'd add one ounce of powder to thirteen fluid ounces of water to produce a solution that weighs fourteen ounces and is one-fourteenth as strong as the powder I started with.
Based on this math, I would need about 9.60 ounces to make 1 gal of a 5.25% solution (by changing the ratio you could have packets that you could just dump in to 2 liter soda bottles too).
So if I wanted to have a 5-gal bucket with "dry pool chlorine" In packets. I would need 4.8 ounces of sodium hypochlorite ("Pool Shock"; assuming it was 70%). Just fill it to the 5-gal mark I would have a 1:10 bleach solution. Then I could use a submersible pump (like an aquarium pump) with a hose and a shower head, or a Garden Sprayer, and use this for decon.
From our bio 08/24/04 chat this is my current understanding for decon.
Others are now advocating soap and water, after rinse, then spray down with 1:10 Bleach solution for 10 minutes and rinse again.
Calcium hypochlorite Info from Wikipedia:
Calcium hypochlorite is a chemical compound with formula Ca(C10)2. It is widely used for water treatment and as a bleaching agent (bleaching powder). This chemical is considered to be relatively stable and has greater available chlorine than sodium hypochlorite (liquid bleach).
Harmful if swallowed or inhaled, and in contact with skin. Skin, eye and respiratory irritant. Safety glasses, adequate ventilation should be used when handling. It’s Strong oxidizer - contact with flammable material may lead to fire.
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