Read and download the coloring book "Germs busted by Chorine" by "The Chlorin8tor" and "Little Hector the Disinfector"
Sodium Hypochlorite
Public Health Champion
Sodium WHAT? If this chemical compound sounds totally unfamiliar, maybe you'll recognize it's common name - chlorine bleach. You may know it as the liquid in that white plastic jug often spotted near the family washing machine. It's added to the laundry to kill germs and to make white clothes whiter. Perhaps you've seen it put to other uses too. Because of its chemical properties, this compound has so many roles in the war against germs, it deserves the title Public Health Champion.
How does sodium hypochlorite defeat germs? The answer is in this chemical reaction:
HOCl, hypochlorous acid, formed when sodium hypochlorite is added to water.,HOCl penetrates the normally resistant surfaces of microorganisms like Salmonella typhi, E. Coli, Legionella pneumophila, Giardia lamblia destroying them. Whether the acid remains in the form of HOCl or as the ions H+ and OCl- depends on the acidity, or pH of the solution.
Chlorine bleach, (sodium hypochlorite - NaOCl), is a very useful and inexpensive disinfectant. A disinfectant kills germs that can make people sick. Sodium hypochlorite is just one of the common chlorine disinfectants; chlorine gas (Cl2) and solid calcium hypochlorite [Ca(OCl)2] are two others.
Safe Water
Safe drinking water is a basic requirement for good health. In the U.S. we tend to take clean drinking water for granted-it's always there for us. But before chlorine disinfectants like sodium hypochlorite were routinely added to our drinking water beginning about 100 years ago, many people became sick and died of waterborne (meaning "carried in the water") diseases. These diseases were caused by germs infecting people through the simple act of drinking water.
Typhoid fever is a waterborne disease caused by the tiny bacterium Salmonella typhi. This nasty little critter, found in untreated water but visible only through a microscope, causes its victims to suffer with a dangerously high temperature and many other painful symptoms. Before antibiotic drugs were invented to treat bacterial infections, typhoid fever was often fatal. Beginning in 1908, as U.S. water systems began to chlorinate drinking water, typhoid fever and other serious waterborne diseases were practically eliminated, greatly increasing the quality of life for Americans.
Follow this link to a very informative page about the use of Chlorine in drinking water.
UK Drinking Water Inspectorate Information for England & Wales
Go back to Legionella facts page
Go back to Salmonella facts page
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