Dada buy expired iodine

[Dave Ridley]

If you have any iodine you were planning on throwing out because it's expired.....either hold on to it or sell it to me.   I'd like to have iodine in some quantity for distribution in the event of a disaster.   even expired iodine apparently can be useful for a very long time tho i'm not yet an expert

tincture of iodine, according to my physician dad, will not ever really go bad.  He says the iodine just tends to become more concentrated.   In other words it's good to keep around for treating water during a disaster.   I suspect it remains good for treating cuts as well.

[KBCraig]

Iodine expires?

[Beth221]

livestock supply companies and vet supply companies usually sell iodine/povidine/betadine solutions BY THE GALLON and its pretty cheep.  FYI. 

I have used animal medications on myself, except for the occasional mooing, i have suffered no ill effects!

http://search.qcsupply.com/?searchString=iodine&cmEnabled=1&lp=1

[Bald Eagle]

If you're seriously interested, I'd look into collecting iodide salts and iodates, used for iodizing salt.

You can more or less let a solution of iodide sit out in the air and the oxygen will convert it to iodine.  That's why they switched over to iodate for use in salt, so that you didn't have purple iodine spontaneously appearing in your table salt over time.

For long term storage, get a glass bottle with either a teflon-lined plastic closure or a well-fitting greased glass stopper.  Ordinary plastic will corrode over time and metal caps will do so very very quickly.  Store the glass container in a styrofoam box or other protective container.  Poorly sealed containers will let out sublimed iodine vapor and do all sorts of interesting things to the surrounding items.

When I worked in a lab, I made a point of measuring out specified quantities of iodine crystals to treat specified quantities of drinking water and then sealing them in labelled glass ampules ("X mg iodine to treat Y gallons of water.  They are stored in a rigid cardboard box with separators so that the ampules don't get broken.  The iodine will have to be dissolved in something like alcohol first (to make a tincture) so that it will dissolve quickly into the water.  (Just try dissolving iodine into water - it works, and there is a method based on this, but it is SLOW)

I can teach people how to do this if they are interested.

[Dave Ridley]

you can get animal grade iodine yes very cheap, maybe 50 cents an ounce.... on the other hand I have trouble finding info on exactly how one would handle that for water treatment.
also i'm not sure what if anything changes as it ages (increased concentration can be an issue as I mentioned, and you need to know what your concentration is to set the dosage).

However I've found an alternative to liquid iodine that is so cheap, and has such an infinite shelf life, that I think it blots out the whole need for liquid iodine as a water purification tool:

http://www.amazon.com/Polar-Pure/dp/B000FXWPQO/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-7574761-0126022?ie=UTF8&s=sporting-goods&qid=1188523899&sr=8-1

I researched it pretty heavily today.   It seems easy to use and is specifically designed for water treatment without guesswork.

I hope you guys buy some.    Ideally this tool would be combined with a water filter.  Polar Pure kills small stuff and the filter snags the big stuff.

Anyway I am probably going to buy it at the cheapest price I can find anywhere, then if the Spit hits the fan , then hopefully I'll have a lot extra to use or trade to neighbors for their survival. 

Meanwhile I have my liquid iodine, my base camp filter and my hiking filter....and this will just be an improvement.   the liquid iodine always wants to escape the containers its in LOL.

[Bald Eagle]

"Simply add water to your Polar Pure bottle. Pure iodine crystals are stable and slightly soluble in water but evaporate easily. Keep your Polar Pure bottle filled with water to maintain an iodine-saturated solution and tightly capped to avoid iodine loss. When used as directed, a saturated iodine solution for disinfection is maintained in the filled Polar Pure bottle."

Yeah, like I said,

(Just try dissolving iodine into water - it works, and there is a method based on this, but it is SLOW)

There is also the danger of adding some of the undissolved iodine into the water to be purified, instead of just the saturated supernatant.  ... and you're paying a premium for iodine in a pretty package.

Any reputable text on water purification or survival skills ought to have a pretty comprehensive discussion about methods of purifying water.  Some wilderness medicine books do as well. 

[Nicholas Gilman]

   The DEA has been pressuring the maker of "Polar Pure" to stop
production.  "Polar Pure" is basically iodine crystals which can
make a solution that is used to purify water.  The gov will be
after povidone-iodine solutions next.  These store well in a cool
environment.

   Water purification info - print this off.

  http://www.mediafire.com/?3id0t3tv1kc

[Dave Ridley]

bill thanks for the criticisms about polar pure....i've researched them over the last half hour and it seems they are probably not decisive problems

from noah's ark:

"By adding a sufficient amount of iodine crystals to a small bottle, an almost unlimited supply of saturated iodine solution can be produced. As long as crystals remain in the bottle, the solution is saturated. Concentration of the iodine is dependent of temperature, either condition at ambient temperature can be assumed, or commercial models such as Polar Pure incorporate a liquid crystal thermometer to determine dose

    One criticism of this method is the chance of decanting iodine crystals into the water being treated. This isn't that much of a problem as iodine is very weakly toxic, but the Polar Pure incorporates a collar into the neck of the bottle to help prevent this. Another disadvantage to this method is that the saturated iodine solution must be kept in glass bottles, and is subject to freezing, but this is hardly an insurmountable problem. Freezing, of course, doesn't affect the crystals.

    This is the method I use, but I do use the commercial Polar Pure bottle, and refill it as necessary with USP crystals. During a crisis, or extended camping trips I would microfilter the water first, so a much lower dose of iodine is needed. "

I found other positive comments and confirmation from the DEA website regarding their scheme to destroy polar pure. 

I couldn't find any negative reports about PP, so I will definitely buy *some* especially now knowing it might become restricted.  can you imagine the nerve of these people making it harder for citizens to be ready for a water supply crisis! 

This quote was especially evil:

"DEA expects that most store retailers will elect not to sell iodine crystals or strong tinctures rather than registering and maintaining sales records."

The power to D.E.A. is the power to D. E. Stroy!

in fairness to DEA, they do state that most water purification kits now use iodide salts which aren't to be regulated.  however do those have an indefinite shelf life like polar pure?   I'm having trouble finding any other really good option with indefinite stable shelf life...

[Dave Ridley]

do you guys have any sense what the shelf life of povidone-iodine is?  If indefinite...how does one determing whether and how much the iodine concentration has increased?

u have to know the iodine concentration to know how much to put in water.....

I think the polar pure does deal with this problem by providing some sort of concentration indicator, but maybe I am mistaken about the indicator's abilities.