Here is the current update on the MSR MIOX testing:

The first round of testing was to determine the effectives against a highly concentrated bacterial slurry. The concentration of bacteria would far exceed anything one might normally encounter, with the exception of water directly from a sewer. The organisms included a Proteus species, E. coli, Bacillus species and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Most of these organisms are routinely recovered from fecal matter and/or environmental specimens. As I previously indicated, I made no attempt to quantify the organisms, but based upon my experience, the bacterial counts would be in the billions per ml of water. The bacterial slurry was significantly turbid to the naked eye. Three of the organisms used, had significant amounts of pigment on the plates. The Proteus species had a dark pigment resulting from hydrogen-sulfide production, the E. coli had a yellow pigmentation from lactose fermentation and the Pseudomonas aeruginosa had a greenish tint. When mixed into the water, there was a definite dark tint to the water.
From each of the following, I collected 0.2 ml of water and plated this onto Blood Agar Plates (BAP) and will incubate these overnight at 37 degrees C. I will give you the results tomorrow.

I made up a .5 L (500 ml) bottle of regular tap water: Negative Control Sample (should not have much, if any bacteria)

The following times are not accurate from the addition of the first dose of the MIOX solution, due to the need to make up additional doses until the test strip indicated there was sufficient MIOX solution to accomplish the task.

Water with Bacterial Slurry at:
0 min. Positive Control (should be loaded with bacteria)
1 min.
5 min.
10 min.
15 min.
20 min.
25 min.

I made the MIOX solution as directed for .5 L of water, added it to the water w/ bacterial slurry and checked the water at approximately 10 seconds with one of the test strips, it indicated that not enough of the MIOX solution was present.

Made up and added another .5 L dose added to water- checked with strip – still not enough
Made up and added another .5L dose added to water – checked with strip – tested okay

Collected 1 min., 5 min. samples

Just prior to 10 min. collected retested with strip – indicated not enough.

Made up a double dose (enough for 1.0 L) and added to the water, checked with strip – indicated okay.

Proceeded (now a 5X MIOX concentrated solution) with 10 min. collection (now more like 13 min.), 20 min. and 25 min. samples

Of note was that with each addition of the MIOX solution the tint of the water with bacterial slurry became lighter and lighter, until it was clear to the naked eye. This would indicate to me some type of bleaching or oxidation effect. Since this was done in the lab, I would not under any circumstances drink the water. If the testing goes well, in the real world I would drink water treated with the MIOX solution and generally consider it safe. My only hesitation would be that while the MIOX solution might in fact kill all the organisms, a number of bacteria even when dead have endotoxins, which in sufficient quantities could still make you sick. It is possible that the oxidation properties of the MIOX solution could inactivate the endotoxins, but I would have no way of knowing that aspect of the chemical interactions. Pete