Do chlorine tablets really expire?

[Wook]

I usually keep some water purification tablets on hand for emergencies, either where I run out of water on a hike and need to use river water, or (less likely) manure hitting the windmill-type events at home. Because of this usage style my 8 year old pack of chlorine tablets is almost totally full with only a few used.

I just bought a new set and opted for the fancy high tech chlorine dioxide tablets, which work against parasites as well as viruses and bacteria. I noticed that my old chlorine tablets "expired" in 2016 and their accompanying flavor neutralisers expired in 2012.

Do things like this really expire or is it a case of slapping expiry dates on things that don't actually go bad?

Is there any reason to hold onto these now that I have the apparently superior in every way chlorine dioxide tablets?

 

[Janne]

Chemicals do not expire if kept dry.
I use Chlorine tablets I was issued with in 1982. Production date late 1979’s.
I have enough to last me a couple of centuries...

 

[Robson Valley]

You ought to be able to find the MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) on line as the data sheets are required by law in so many places now.
Those will be the facts. Can you smell chlorine? A bleach-like smell? If so, the pellets are decomposing and the chlorine is being lost.

Look at your water source. The different kinds of green algae growing in that water are excellent indicators of nutrient levels (cow crap, etc).
I would not even try to clean up water with the wavy filamentous green = Spirogyra growing in it. I collected and analyzed waters for a while.

 

[Broch]

Robson and Janne are both right (surprise, surprise). Chlorine is lost by tablets over time but if they are still sealed the loss will be minimal and they will still work. But, since you've already bought better replacements, I'd chuck them (can't stand the taste anyway so I don't use them ).

 

[Janne]

The best way is to boil up some ultra strong coffee. Like a coffee concentrate. Let cool down. Then dilute the purified water with the cold coffee.

I imagine that if the tablets are exposed to indoor, humid air, then the Chlorine will evaporate slowly, and the tablets will lose a certain % of their purifying power, more the longer time passes.

 

[Janne]

These I have. They are now in museums!!!
https://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/91616/arme_object_AM019044.html

 

[Alan De Enfield]

Do things like this really expire or is it a case of slapping expiry dates on things that don't actually go bad?

It always makes me wonder - 'Mineral water' has sat slowly percolating thru' the rock for millions of years, we extract it, put it in a bottle and stick on a BB date about 1 year ahead.

Why ?

 

[Janne]

Laws dreamed up during a boring day.

Bottled water can have introduced bacteria. ( explanation I got from a mineral water importer when I asked)

What about this: 15 month old Parmigiano has a sell be date. 5 year old Parmigiano too.
Makes you wonder how they made the 5 year old??

 

[Nice65]

It always makes me wonder - 'Mineral water' has sat slowly percolating thru' the rock for millions of years, we extract it, put it in a bottle and stick on a BB date about 1 year ahead.

Why ?

Salt is the same. Billions of years old, a natural preservative, with a use by date???

 

[nitrambur]

Salt is the same. Billions of years old, a natural preservative, with a use by date???

Salt is hygroscopic, every time you open the jar it takes a big breath of moist air and will slowly deliquesce.

 

[Janne]

Salt is the same. Billions of years old, a natural preservative, with a use by date???

It is mined in Pakistan. In a place called Khewra, in the distant foothills of Himalaya!
The colour comes from mainly Iron oxide. It is totally missing Iodine.
And most other things proper Sea Salt contains.
It is a scam.
I fell for it through, but when wife developed a Thyroid problem ( enlarged Thyroid) which was traced to lack of Iodine, we started using Iodinized Sea Salt.
Thyroid problem disappeared within a couple of months.
She is not the only one that got damaged by that pink scam.

 

[Robson Valley]

That's what really annoys me about any and all raw salts ( I collect them) = there is no law, anywhere,
which requires the producers to publish analysis. Australia, Poland, Spain, Cyprus, you name it.
Never pig out on any one of them, no matter how trendy.

I use iodized Canadian Sifto salt in the kitchen. Both fine and coarse.
I have a tray of 10 finishing salts in the dining room.
I use a little of every one and rotate them out with the rest of the collection.
There's a box of 10 new ones waiting at the Post Office for me today.

 

[Janne]

Cool salts are excellent for their ‘cool factor’

I am always amazed the price tag on NaCl.
I have seen Organic Salt for sale.

I also see Organic Wildcaught Sardines in Spring Water.
Nicely packaged in brown coloured paper so it looks recyclable and sustainable.

I guess Yummy Mummies with dormant braincells buy them on the way home from the daily Hot Yoga?

 

[Janne]

My old friend (92 this X-mas). Makes his own Bacalao ( Dried Salt Cod).
He buys 25 kilo bags of salt from an agricultural store.
That bag costs him the same as a 150grsm bag of Pakistani Pink Salt.
NaCl.

 

[Mr Wolf]

Keeps companies in business...they cant be honest and say buy once in bulk and never need to again...repeat customers make money

 

[Dave Budd]

a lot of the packaged foods that don't go off in millions of years (such as water and salt) have BBE dates on them because the packaging material degrades and contaminates the food. Since agricultural/road salt isn't for human consumption, the breakdown of the plastic bags isn't a concern. Another difference between agricultural salt and human salt is the cleanliness of the mining/production and handling all the way through to the customer

On a side note with the chlorine. I occasionally clean out my waterbutts and stick a little chlorine bleach in there to kill off anything that shouldn't be living in there, but only during the summer months when it's not flushed through so often. Mostly my water is used for cups of tea in the workshop and at times of year when rainfall is frequent (ie pretty much all the time bar a few months of this year), I don't bother boiling it for drinking water since I'm used to it and have never had any ill effects. My usual choice is industrial chlorine of cheap bleach that is basically chlorine and water, however I could only find some thickened domestic bleach last time. It does the same job of killing nasties, doesn't taste any worse than most of the water in the taps back in Essex and doesn't (seem) so cause me any harm. The only thing I have discovered is that there must be a foaming agent added to it as when the kettle boils, most of the water ends up on the floor! It took me three boilings to make 4 cups of tea with my 5L kettle yesterday!

 

[Robson Valley]

Salt brine is used here as a deicing agent on our highways and streets in the winters.
So there's always mountains of the stuff all over the country.

The resulting galvanic corrosion can rot your vehicle to flakes on 5-8 years.
A sacrificial anode like any marine craft is a big help.
The city of Montreal will EAT your car (except Chev Corvettes with fiberglass bodies.)

They can call it organic salt because they intentionally leave all the marine pollutants in it = microbeads of plastic,
tar droplets of spilled crude oils, fish pharts, bilge flushings ( best done off shore at night when you aren't looking.)
They can call it organic because they add no life supporting elements like iodine. Bullshi.t is organic, as well.

I'll take what I believe is quite clean (as sea salt goes) straight off the outer coast of British Columbia.
A $6.50 packet is about 2 shot glasses of salt. At a rate of a literal pinch of a sprinkle, 10 of those packets ought to last a decade.
Actually, the ones with additives like basil or lemon zest are a delight. All tested on new red potatoes dug less than 48 hours before they hit my face.
= = =
So yes, chlorine tablets expire. If you can smell it, the chlorine is leaving your pills.
Like the odds of getting some dire gastrointestinal bug in the middle of nowhere?
Always buy fresh and use them.
You get a reputation as a real rookie as you get carried out.
Plus, it's a risky PITA for your rescuers, too.

 

[Tengu]

https://www.cornishseasalt.co.uk/pages/made-by-the-sea

If they are enviromentally friendly why do they pump so much water they dont need?

And how can a highly processed product be natural??

 

[Robson Valley]

Highly processed. In this case crystallized. What happens as the atoms line up to become a crystal,
the impurities are squeezed out. Standard, simple chemistry lab purification process.
Dump off the liquid. Redissolve the crystal mass and evaporate for another crystallization, etc.
Repeat 3X to really clean it up.

So if you're concerned about food purity, regular white table salt and white sugar are about the cleanest things in the store.
You can buy first crystal sugar in the so-called Health Food stores.
There's actually a limit here on how many insect parts per kg are allowed.

 

[Janne]

Tengu!
In Cornvall they take the salt and sell it dearly.
Here in Cayman they dump the brine and sell the fresh water dearly.

Funny world we live in!

Wonder how much energy ( electricity?) they use.

Make your own sea salt. Easy.

Insects in raw sugar? Preserved protein.
I have made my own sugar ( experiment) here. Sun evaporated cane juice.
Easier to go to the supermarket.