Heather says:
This is the first in a new series on household chemicals.
Over the past few years, I have gotten the impression that many people are using chlorine bleach¹ in an unsafe manner. Chlorine bleach aka sodium hypochlorite is a powerful disinfectant and is one of only a few widely available, inexpensive sanitizing agents. It is so powerful in fact that it should only be used in fairly low concentrations.
Chlorine bleach should always be used in a well-ventilated area.
If your eyes are watering. You are using too much bleach. If your skin is peeling: A) you should have worn gloves B) you are using too much bleach. If you use hot, rather than warm water, chlorine gas can be released and this isn’t recommended. Never mix bleach with other household chemicals such as ammonia or vinegar, both can cause dangerous chemical reactions.
Don’t waste the power of your bleach on cleaning; reduce your use and save it only for sanitizing.
Chlorine bleach works both as a cleaning and a disinfecting agent. However many less corrosive and dangerous household items also work as highly effective cleaning agents: hot water, scrub brushes, and dish detergents are but a few examples.
Chlorine bleach is a highly effective sanitizing agent, but it needs to be used properly. Repeat after me:
Clean, rinse, sanitize.
When sanitizing food preparation areas: counters, tables, sinks, knives, and cutting boards. All surfaces should be washed to remove organic materials (food bits) and rinsed. It is only at this point that the items should be sanitized with a bleach solution of approximately 200ppm. This is about 1 TBSP of chlorine bleach per gallon of water. Did you catch that? Let me repeat it.
The proper dilution of chlorine bleach for sanitizing food preparation surfaces is 200ppm or 1 TBSP per gallon of warm water.
Get yourself a spray bottle and mix up a batch whenever you’re going to need sanitizing agent. Be aware that chlorine evaporates so only mix a small amount at a time. If you’re making 1 quart of sanitizing solution estimate ¾ teaspoon per quart, and that will get you in the neighborhood of 200 ppm. Just rinse after use.
Allow the 200ppm bleach solution to sit on the surface for at least a full minute to give the bleach time to work. With a 200ppm dilution rinsing is not necessary and it’s actually best to allow most surfaces to air dry rather than re-contaminating with a towel.
Chlorine bleach is also an effective sanitizing agent outside of the kitchen.
When sanitizing other surfaces, such as in the bathroom, bleach may be used in a 500ppm dilution.
A 500ppm dilution is 2½ tablespoons of 5.25% chlorine bleach per 1 gallon of warm water.
While bleach is a cleaning agent, milder methods are highly recommended. Save the bleach for the final, sanitizing step, just as you would in the kitchen.
If you weren’t aware, urine evaporates leaving behind ammonium salts. Always clean and rinse any area that may have urine: near toilets, cat boxes, dog kennels, etc before sanitizing.
How to use chlorine bleach in the laundry.
When bleaching a load of whites, use 3/4 cup of liquid bleach in a standard washer and those with high efficiency washers should consult their appliance manuals or call the manufacturer. Typically the amount of bleach per load in a high efficiency washer is equivalent to the maximum fill line of the bleach dispenser, but check to be sure.
When pre-soaking laundry bleach safe fabrics, first remove as much soil as possible, then use 1/4 cup per gallon of warm water. Anything stronger can damage the fabric.
So for the TL:DR crowd here’s the quick summary:
- Clean, rinse, sanitize, wait 1 – 5 minutes. Rinse again if it’s stainless steel.
- Food prep surfaces require a 200ppm or 1 TBSP chlorine bleach per gallon of warm water.
- Other surfaces may use a 500ppm dilution or 2½ TBSP chlorine bleach per gallon of warm water.
- Laundry pre-soaks 1/4 cup per gallon or 3/4 cup for a full load in a standard, top loading washer.
Send your questions to helpme@home-ec101.com
¹♪♫Let’s talk about bleach baby, let’s talk about you and me. Let’s talk about all the good things and all the bad things bleach may be. ♪♫ Yeah, I woke up with a song in my head.
References:
http://www.ag.auburn.edu/poul/virtuallibrary/mckeeeffectivechlorine.html http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=178.1010 http://cfr.vlex.com/vid/110-3-definitions-19705933 http://pods.dasnr.okstate.edu/docushare/dsweb/Get/Document-963/FAPC-116web.pdf
Well, you could have published this a week or so ago, couldn't you?!
Thanks for the info. Now you need to tell me how to dye my poor shirt that I can't get the stain out of.
Thank you so much for posting this. I've always wondering how to safely dilute bleach to use as a cleaning agent!
I no longer buy chlorine bleach — I buy oxygen bleach instead. I haven't done a ton of research on it, but I understand that it's gentler on the environment and on clothes, so the higher cost is worth it to me. Do you have any thoughts on this?
Also, for disinfecting kitchen / bathroom, I use two spray bottles. A spritz of undiluted vinegar followed by a spritz of undiluted hydrogen peroxide, and then wiped down. This is supposed to be MORE effective than bleach for sanitizing surfaces such as counters and toilets and even food, as the result is non-toxic. (But don't premix the vinegar and hydrogen peroxide; in order to be effective, you need that chemical reaction to happen on the whatever-it-is you are cleaning.)
I assume you are using the food grade H202, correct? I do plan on mentioning the alternatives to bleach in future posts, but I'm going to start with the most familiar chemicals and work my way out from there.
I do want to be very careful with what I recommend. When I was researching the book, I corresponded with the government's consumer question program and asked for alternatives for bleach. I became quite frustrated when the only information they would give me is a version of what you see above.
As I do not want to be responsible for passing along bad information, I'm researching the alternatives carefully and there will be disclaimers.
Since no one in my home has an immune deficiency, I'm not especially careful to sanitize, except food surface areas.
For most of us, provided we practice good personal hygiene. Hands people, wash them. Often. Clean is good enough.
great post!
Just remember that cleaning thoroughly before using bleach to disinfect is a must. Bleach is readily inactivated by organic matter.
awesome post
Thank You! Very Nice =D
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How much bleach to keep the algae down in a 4 foot by three-foot pond nothing in it just water It has a pump It bigger then what the pond needs