I have read conflicting reports on the effectiveness of Betadine for water purification. Not tincture of iodine, but Betadine. Is there a difference? I allready have a bottle, so I'm hoping it will be safe to use. Is it? Are there other types of iodine which are better? Enlighten me! Thanks in advance for the help. -- Ian

My knee-jerk reply was "no", but...

Betadine® is a brand name for a product line that includes products with detergents. See http://woundcare.org/newsvol2n2/ar1.htm Quoting: "Betadine Microbicides contain a complex of the polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone with iodine (PVP-I) which, after application, continues to deliver iodine over a period of time."

As you noted, some people use povidine iodine for water purification, with one of the better references over at high-altitude medicine: http://www.high-altitude-medicine.com/water.html#Backer1995

I think there are two questions to ask:

1) Does the suggested 4 drops / liter (clear water) disinfect water to drinking standards? (Pete... if you have the time to test this, it would be great to know the answer). Note that most agree that it takes very very long contact times for all halogens, specifically iodine, to destroy oocystic organisms like giardia and crypto; they work best as anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal agents.

2) Are there any significant health hazards from ingesting the trace amounts of other (admitably USP grade) chemicals used in Betadine®? (My GUESS is these are insignificant / begnign, but I'm not an expert on those matters).

I have used iodine (Tetraglycine hydroperiodide; US military and PA) for decades and trust it. But now my wife has a very mild thyroid condition, so I'm considering switching to a different disinfectant for water purification. AFAIK, there are not really any great substitutes for PVP-I when it comes to wound cleansing, but I'm looking.

I know this doesn't give you a definitive answer - I don't believe there is a consensus. Good question.

Tom

Betadine/Providone are commercial names for buffered iodine. By adding polyvinalpyrrolidone the stinging and inflammations that prevent wound bandaging or casts are eliminated. You are getting a iodine PH value of 7. There are two % of betadine, one is 10% which delivers all of 1% available iodine and a.10 used for pre opt scrubbing. Recent tests have shown even higher % of straight iodine are neccessary for effective cryptosporidium treatment. So the answer would seem to be get straight iodine to be truly safe. With the dangers some people face I would consider a second option in your preparations. And now after using all these big words i'm getting a drink of water- no, make it last night's champagne. I'm not driving anywhere <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the information, much appreciated. Interesting stuff.

Check out this site
http://www.hollowtop.com/hopsstore_html/water_purification.htm

... and go down a few inches to where they talk about " The best form of iodine for water purification seems to be USP-grade resublimed iodine crystals". They talk about it being good for Giardia-infested water, but don't mention Cryptosporum that I saw, although I didn't go through the whole thing.

I remembered this from a video on survival... Woods something?

Sue

I will try and get to it this week.

Pete

I was going to ask about iodine crystals. I found where I could order 25 grams for 5.40 in a science catalog. I did not know whether it was good to use them or not.
Thanks

That's what Polar Pure is - plain elemental iodine crystals. Better to just get a bottle of Polar Pure and follow the instructions; they have everything worked out right there on the container, including liquid crystal themomoter.

Cool! Thanks!