bc bladder disinfectant / antiseptic needed

[kitbuga]

doctors,

please recommend something with which to clean / disinfect a bc bladder. it's to render bc air as clean as possible in case (heaven forbid) i have to breathe from it in an emergency. natch, it shouldn't react with or weaken the bladder material.


betadine? listerine?

i use a diverite traveliwing.

kitbuga
mandaluyong city
philippines

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi Kitbuga,

I see from your posting of this in another board section that you have mentioned the possible use of such liquids as Listerine & dilute Betadine.

IMHO, Betadine would not be a prudent choice given that you may end up getting some in your mouth. This is not the type of compound that you wish to ingest, not to mention that it is not very appealing in terms of taste or smell.

Listerine, on the other hand, has at least modest disinfectant properties, is perfectly safe for the mouth, and not as unpleasant in terms of taste or smell.

Go to it.

Best regards.

DocVikingo

 

[SubMariner]

I have to say I followed Doc Viking's advice about using Listerine & it works like a charm. FYI we have about 6 BCs....

Plus it has that lovely minty fresh flavour!

Sorry Doc.. I keep doing that don't I?

Bad! Bad SubMariner!

~SubMariner~

 

[Laurence Stein DDS]

kitbuga

There are a couple of things you might want to try.

First, with respect to Listerine--it is 30% alcohol, Yup! 60 proof! It also contains "essential oils". Both of these components could be a problem over time. Alcohol tends to dry out rubber components--ask anyone who has been forced to switch to gasoline with ethanol additive in it--the rubber seals fail--rather quickly. So immersion in Listerine may cause problems with rubber components--and if you have and Air II on your inflator hose, those neoprene seals may go bad even quicker. You won't know till you try.

The essential oils--eucalyptol, thymol, etc. are actually responsible for the antibacterial effects. They also penetrate petroleum based materials--you got it--the bladder and the seals. Again, I don't know what will happen--just remember, you're not supposed to use vaseline with a condom (pardon the analogy).

Ok, now for what might work. I wash my dive skin and wetsuits with Woolite and it really gets the smell out. It's not a disinfectant and you would have to rinse a lot to get the suds out.
Another product which should really work is Hibiclens by Zeneca-Astra. It is a surgical soap containing Chlorhexidine Gluconate 4%. It is not a prescription. Its dental counterpart is called Peridex .12% dental rinse--It is a presciption and it contains alcohol. It kills bacteria, viruses, molds, fungi, almost anything. It is my soap of choice for washing between patients. It is also persistent--it gets into the skin/surface and continues to kill--a property called substantivity. I know it works on skin. I don't know about its persistence on artificial surfaces.

IT HAS A BITTER TASTE!!! So rinse it really well. If possible take the inflator hose outlet off and the dump valve outlet off when you are ready to rinse it out. Us a lot of water. Don't lose the little gasket thingy that goes into these outlets. Before removing hoses, though back wash the inflator hose with the solution.

You should need about an ounce per BC and then fill with water to its maximum. Leave it alone for about 10 minutes. Then dumb and rinse.

Also, on contact with things like chlorox, chlorhexidine can make a brown stain which can't be removed. Not that you are going to be using chlorox--although you might rinse your ice chest out with it and if the two mix, you'll get a stain.

Try it. If your BC isn't smelling too funky and it doesn't taste bitter, then you probably have a winner.

Finally, Listerine also comes as Listermint with no alcohol. It's not as good an aneseptic but it tastes better than chlorhexidine.

Good luck,

Laurence Stein DDS

 

[BillP]

Hi kitbuga:

DAN published an article in their Feb. 2001 issue on disinfecting dive gear. They discussed the US Navy Experimental Diving Unit's (NEDU) search for safe and effective disinfectants. The NEDU had been using Wescodyne (an iodine based product like Betadine) to disinfect their gear, but found it hard to use.

After what sounds like an exhaustive search where they talked to manufacturers, respiratory therapy departments, DAN, and other medical and dive related organizations, they settled on:

-SaniZide Plus
-Bi-Arrest 2
-Advance TBE
-Confidence Plus

They found each of the above safe and effective for cleaning dive gear (and each was more effective than Wescodyne). The article did not specifically discuss BC breathing after cleaning the BC bladder with any of the above products, but they did say that the NEDU tested equipment cleaned with the products in a pressure vessel to an equivalent depth of 257fsw/78msw at 100°F for 4 hours and did not find that any dangerous levels of gas molecules were released from the cleaned gear. They pronounced the products safe for hyperbaric use.

DAN gave contact info for the products' manufacturers on their website at:

http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/news/article.asp?newsid=84

HTH,

Bill