Simple elixir called a 'miracle liquid'

[n2doc]

Electrolyzed water cleans, degreases -- and treats athlete's foot. The solution is replacing toxic chemicals.
By Marla Dickerson
February 23, 2009
It's a kitchen degreaser. It's a window cleaner. It kills athlete's foot. Oh, and you can drink it.

Sounds like the old "Saturday Night Live" gag for Shimmer, the faux floor polish plugged by Gilda Radner. But the elixir is real. It has been approved by U.S. regulators. And it's starting to replace the toxic chemicals Americans use at home and on the job.


The stuff is a simple mixture of table salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled with an electric current. Researchers have dubbed it electrolyzed water -- hardly as catchy as Mr. Clean. But at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica, some hotel workers are calling it el liquido milagroso -- the miracle liquid.

That's as good a name as any for a substance that scientists say is powerful enough to kill anthrax spores without harming people or the environment.

Used as a sanitizer for decades in Russia and Japan, it's slowly winning acceptance in the United States. A New York poultry processor uses it to kill salmonella on chicken carcasses. Minnesota grocery clerks spray sticky conveyors in the checkout lanes. Michigan jailers mop with electrolyzed water to keep potentially lethal cleaners out of the hands of inmates.
more:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-magicwater23-2009feb23,0,2307567.story

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I've read about this, and it's fascinating...

The only thing I want to know: When will it be available for folks like me? Ordinary citizens who want to have it?

We can really make use of it too...

[BadgerKid]

3. .

[eppur_se_muova]

7. Just dilute some Chlorox, it's the same thing. nt

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

2. Should we really be drinking salt water?

I mean, I'm pretty sure I can drink window cleaner, too, but I wouldn't.

[Wapsie B]

4. Gee, somewhere an MLM co. is just dying to get its hands on the stuff.

[BadgerKid]

5. Sounds like electrolysis of brine (Wikipedia)

About four percent of hydrogen gas produced worldwide is created by electrolysis. The majority of this hydrogen produced through electrolysis is a side product in the production of chlorine.

2 NaCl + 2 H2O → Cl2 + H2 + 2 NaOH

The electrolysis of brine, a water sodium chloride mixture, is only half the electrolysis of water since the chloride ions are oxidized to chlorine rather than water being oxidized to oxygen. The hydrogen produced from this process is either burned, used for the production of specialty chemicals, or various other small scale applications.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrolysis_of_water


I think I'll pass and stick with lye and bleach.

[eppur_se_muova]

6. Exactly. And the Cl2 reacts with NaOH to make NaOCl -- just like Chlorox.

This is just a way of making dilute bleach, in other words.

[wtmusic]

10. Don't the remaining H and Cl atoms then combine to form HCl?

No toxic chemicals here! :D

[wtmusic]

9. Hey, don't rain on the parade.

It's been used in Japan for decades. :D

[macllyr]

8. pool salt electrolysis

Water from a pool with a salt electrolysis system would be just fine...

Mac L'lyr

[madokie]

11. We have a salt water pool with one of those

It has titanium plates and with them and the salt and low voltage dc current it makes chlorine and hydrogen gas. The water feels so soft and clean never a hint of chlorine. We love our salt water pool.