Disposing of Bleach Water

[kevwalsh]

For goodness sake! Why the hell are you bleaching your bird feeders? You garden organically, but happily slop bleach around your yard? Use soap. Better yet, just water. Or even better, just leave the silly thing alone. The birds don't care, and neither should you!

[Roger Shoaf]

Pure natural spring water can be toxic if you drink too much of it. The bleach is no big deal if diluted or evaporated.

Chlorine in drinking water has saved millions form water borne disease.

[Richard J Kinch]

Nonsense. End products of bleach oxidation are small amounts of water- soluble things like sodium chloride. Harmless if well-dispersed.

[effi]

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"We now know that dioxin exhibits serious health effects when it reaches as little as a few parts per trillion in your body fat. Dioxin is a powerful hormone disrupting chemical. By binding to a cell's hormone receptor, it literally modifies the functioning and genetic mechanism of the cell, causing a wide range of effects, from cancer to reduced immunity to nervous system disorders to miscarriages and birth deformity. Because it literally changes the functioning of your cells, the effects can be very obvious or very subtle. Because it changes gene functions, it can cause so-called genetic diseases to appear, and can interfere with child development. There is no "threshold" dose - the tiniest amount can cause damage, and our bodies have no defense against it... Unfortunately, according to the EPA, much of the population of the U.S. is at the dose at which there can be serious health effects...

Dioxin...has been a hazard downstream of paper mills (where chlorine bleach combines with natural organics in wood pulp and produces dioxin)."

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"Nationwide, more than 32 million pounds of household cleaning products are poured down the drain each day. Many of these products contain toxic substances that are NOT processed adequately by sewage treatment plants or septic systems. Careless or improper use and disposal of these products may threaten individual health or lead to accidental poisoning. Long term or cumulative environmental consequences may also occur like contamination of surface and ground water...

DID YOU KNOW ? a.. THAT OF THE 17,OOO CHEMICALS THAT APPEAR IN COMMON HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS, ONLY 30% HAVE BEEN ADEQUATELY TESTED FOR THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON OUR HEALTH ...

a.. MEDICAL DOCTORS AND SCIENTISTS HAVE STUDIED, ANALYZED, EVALUATED, AND CONCLUDED THAT THERE IS A DEFINITIVE CONNECTION BETWEEN OUR HEALTH AND THE USE OF EVERYDAY COMMON HOUSEHOLD CLEANING CHEMICALS ...

Most household cleaners contain toxic chemicals. Ammonia is in almost all of them and is lethal if combined with bleach (forming chloramine)...

As a by-product of its oxidizing process, BLEACH releases 'chloramine gas' into the air which destroys oxygen content and diminishes indoor air quality dramatically...

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bleach can cause cancer causing chemicals to form in the waste water stream.

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The most toxic substances to aquatic organisms present in the water were household bleach, all-purpose cleaner, laundry detergent, and dish detergent.

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Chlorine bleach compounds are toxic to aquatic organisms in very low concentrations...

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[Norminn]

Created an ecosystem with bleach water? How about building a rocket and flying the bucket to Mars? Get rid of the bird feeder and weed seed, buy a shrub with some nice berries and let the critters eat what nature provides. You might get "double duty" from a shrub with flowers that attract butterflies.

You are "sterilizing" stuff the animals poop on? Save "sterile" for the kitchen and bath. Better yet, clean is fine. Your animal friends eat dead, rotting animal and vegetable matter, so they don't need indoor sanitation in the outdoors.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Effi can find information that proves everything is toxic.

[fleemo17]

You garden organically, but happily slop bleach around your yard? Use soap. Better yet, just water. Or even better, just leave the silly thing alone. The birds don't care, and neither should you!<

Like humans, birds transmit diseases to each other. Unlike humans, they also poop where they eat, exacerbating the problem. Diseases like Conjunctivitis are easily transmitted through contaminated feeders. Here's a quote from the Wild Birds Unlimited website:

1. Keep feeders clean - Clean and disinfect feeders regularly. Use one part liquid chlorine household bleach in nine parts of tepid water (a

10% solution) to disinfect. Make enough solution to immerse an empty, cleaned feeder completely for two to three minutes. Allow to air dry. Once or twice a month should do, but weekly cleaning may be needed if you notice sick birds at your feeders. But thanks for your concern.

-Fleemo

[Matt]

This is also true for kittens. I saw it on the Wild Kittens Unlimited website.

[George E. Cawthon]

Normin, you need to know what your are talking about before opening your mouth. Bird feeders create non-natural conditions of extreme crowding which results in the spread disease. Nearly every birder knows that that they need to sterilize feeders and birdbaths to reduce the spread of disease. BTW, nearly every newspaper and television stations has annual articles about this.

[Gideon]

The poster asked for your advice on how to best dispose of bleach. Why the sermon on lifestyle and tree-hugging?

Your not too big on hygiene, are you? I assume that one bar of soap and one roll of toilet paper probably last you about 25 years.

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Norminn wrote Created an ecosystem with bleach water? How about building a rocket and flying the bucket to Mars? Get rid of the bird feeder and weed seed, buy a shrub with some nice berries and let the critters eat what nature provides. You might get "double duty" from a shrub with flowers that attract butterflies.

You are "sterilizing" stuff the animals poop on? Save "sterile" for the kitchen and bath. Better yet, clean is fine. Your animal friends eat dead, rotting animal and vegetable matter, so they don't need indoor sanitation in the outdoors.

[.]

[Gideon]

effi blurted out in a politically correct tone: "Nationwide, more than 32 million pounds of household cleaning products are poured down the drain each day. Many of these products contain toxic substances that are NOT processed adequately by sewage treatment plants or septic systems.

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Yeah - I'm certain that my local municipal sewage treatment plant is going to be bother by a bit of additional sodium hypochlorite in the waste water that I send to them. What the hell do you think is the major bacteria destroyer that they add to the water as they are treating it? I'd continue to explain to you, but I've got to go hug a tree right now.

[willshak]

On 1/26/2005 6:00 PM US(ET), Gideon took fingers to keys, and typed the following:

I can see hugging another person, animal, or even a stuffed toy, but a tree? There are ants and bugs crawling all over it.

[deanbrown3d]

Leave it to evaporate in a bucket outside, and then throw the solid part in the trash. It will be neutralized by that point.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Not if you spray the tree with bleach first.

[zxcvbob]

There are better disinfectants than bleach. Quaternary ammonia is a great hospital disinfectant and will kill germs, viruses, and parasites. A 0.1% solution would probably be about right for this use. I buy it at Fleet Farm as a 10% concentrate called "Steramine" in the dairy supplies aisle. You would use about 1 1/2 ounces (3 Tbsp.) per gallon of water.

Best regards, Bob

[effi]

plonk!

[Gideon]

And just how many municipal water systems are dumping ammonia in the water supply to purify it? How many pool supply retail outlets are pushing ammonia? Sorry - bleach is the extremely economical and effective disinfectant.

There are better disinfectants than bleach. Quaternary ammonia is a great hospital disinfectant and will kill germs, viruses, and parasites. A 0.1% solution would probably be about right for this use. I buy it at Fleet Farm as a 10% concentrate called "Steramine" in the dairy supplies aisle. You would use about 1 1/2 ounces (3 Tbsp.) per gallon of water.

Best regards, Bob

[Duane Bozarth]

??? :(

[Gideon]

??? :(

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That was my reactions - well intended advice, but who wants to wait for a gallon of water to evaporate? Will it ever evaporate with snow or rain refilling the container? If it does eventually evaportate, then the sodium hypochlorite crystals left behind will be somewhat uniformly distributed on the sides and bottom of the container. How do we get rid of these bleach crystals? Add water to the container to rinse them off. We're back were we started.

Gideon