Claims that ionizing water turns it into a “miracle liquid” with potent powers of disinfection are dubious. One of the recent versions of this scam blatantly states that the substance cures athletes’ foot and yet it is safe to drink. Fish and poultry industries use it without adversely affecting the quality of the food. This simple formula can be whipped up on the spot by any cleaning crew with the right ionizing equipment. This sounds like a great product for use in hospitals, sterile manufacturing and lab environments doesn’t it? Actually, there is not a substantial difference between regular tap water and what comes out of these expensive electrolysis machines. It’s incredible that electrolyzed sterilizing water claims like this can be successfully spread as fact in today’s information age.
Unfortunately, water hoaxes abound. One website even pokes fun at this persistent phenomenon by claiming that di-hydrogen monoxide is one of the deadliest chemicals known to man. Inhalation can cause death! This harmful substance can cause severe burns in its gaseous form! Worse yet, you are being exposed to this potentially lethal material every day in your own home! Of course, anyone who stops to think about it recognizes that di-hydrogen monoxide is just plain old H20.
However, consumers who are bombarded with “scientific” terminology can be taken in by all sorts of claims. The information can sound credible because of the way it is presented. In the case of electrolyzed water, pseudo-science is mixed in with real science. The goal is to encourage customers to buy very expensive but relatively worthless equipment.
In the case of these electrolysis machines, this is the real story: adding a small amount of sodium chloride (common table salt) and processing the water in one of these devices will at best only result in an expensive way to make a very diluted hypochlorous acid and sodium hypochlorite solution. In laypersons terms, it basically makes household bleach. While the sterilization abilities of bleach are unquestioned, drinking it is probably not a good idea. Solutions weak enough to be safe to ingest would most likely have a fairly low sterilization efficacy.
This Is Nothing New
Health claims circulated in 2002 saying that electrolyzed water is a wonderful anti-aging formula and prevents cancer. However, ionizing water imbues no anti-oxidizing effects. In fact, ionized H2O with a small amount of NaCl (salt) will become an oxidizer. Such grand statements have been greatly toned down, but this is still the same old product with a similar emotionally based story line used to manipulate potential customers.
It would be nice to have a harmless, low cost, and eco-friendly sterilizing agent on hand for cleaning an entire facility. However, consumers should be wary of any claim that seems “to good to be true”. Instead, it makes sense to ensure sterile processing using trusted and tested products. There are a number of cleaning solutions on the market today that are designed to be safe and effective while reducing environmental impact. There are also many sterilizers and autoclaves that operate efficiently and cause minimal pollution. If you are in the market for a piece of sterilizing equipment that really gets the job done, read our free report.