Stabilized Chlorine Dioxide

Stabilized Chlorine Dioxide
Use
Stabilized chlorine dioxide is actually sodium chlorite, a primary ingredient in a class of mouthwashes and toothpastes. At least three mouthwashes contain stabilized chlorine dioxide: TheraBreath, Oxyfresh, CloSYS II. These three products often refer to the stabilized phrase as synonymous with chlorine dioxide.
Stabilized Versus Active Chlorine Dioxide
Chlorine dioxide is a highly reactive molecule. It is a free radical and can not be stabilized as a gas or in solution or gel. The compound called “stabilized chlorine dioxide” by some manufacturers, is in fact, sodium chlorite, although the phrase is too often used as synonymous with chlorine dioxide. The “stabilized” term attempts to describe a formulation which has the same or similar chemical properties to the now familiar disinfectant, chlorine dioxide, and its many applications. Chemically this disguise would be similar to calling sodium chloride table salt, “stabilized chlorine.”
Preparation
Stabilized chlorine dioxide is prepared by buffering sodium chlorite with carbonate or phosphate, and hydrogen peroxide. This approach, in reality, stabilizes the chlorite not the chlorine dioxide, and the stabilized compound is not the same as chlorine dioxide, nor has the same oxidizing properties. The oxidation potential of sodium chlorite is much lower than chlorine dioxide, and the chemical is far less useful as a product in general. The efficacy of chlorine dioxide for oral applications is now well known.
Chlorine dioxide is a gas, is non ionic and quite penetrating; and the molecule is unique in that it is soluble in water, oil, and organic solvents. On the other hand, sodium chlorite is a salt, soluble in water only, and unlike chlorine dioxide, will dissociate into its component ions in solution, while chlorine dioxide remains as an intact molecule.
In order for stabilized chlorine dioxide salt to release chlorine dioxide by chemical reaction, the compound must be mixed with a relatively strong acid to overcome the heavy buffering involved in its formulation. In fact, according to a published spectrophotometer study, the activator acid must produce a solution below pH 3. The resulting acidity is too severe for many topical applications.
Oral Application
One stabilized chlorine dioxide website claims that acidity in a person’s mouth will cause a release of chlorine dioxide. But the rate of such release, if any occurs, is below significance, and no confirming test is provided. The acidity of the mouth is not high enough to cause such a reaction in real time. Nor, would it seem that the mouth should be required for activation, since the same website oddly states, “no mixing is required to activate our product.”
Use of Phosphates
One of the stabilized chlorine dioxide patents entitled, “Treating abnormal conditions of the epithelium of body orifices,” adds even more phosphate for “stabilization.” The reason or purpose for this is not clear and no references are given. There is no indication as to how all the phosphates mentioned could stabilize either the pH or the chlorine dioxide at a pH below 7. The included phosphates range in pH from 4.4 to 12, and all of them, moreover, are used for activation as well as stabilization. This dual action on the face of it sounds incredible. Some of these phosphates are suitable for topical application, but one, particularly preferred, is highly irritating and toxic according to the general literature. In any case, the high pH phosphates stated, would certainly prevent chlorine dioxide activation in the first place, or at least prevent any slight release for many hours, thus adding to the original buffering. Misuse of language, intentional or otherwise, leads the inventor of this patent, and in another patent, to indicate in the Abstract and Claims that release of chlorine dioxide will be retarded from the chlorine dioxide. The first-named chlorine dioxide we are meant to understand is different from the second.
Antiseptic properties of Stabilized Chlorine Dioxide
Although one stabilized chlorine dioxide advertisement refers to its product as, “The ultimate Germ Killer,” Stabilized chlorine dioxide itself, is a poor antiseptic, not much different in disinfection ability than common salt water. Sodium chlorite has a long history but is never used in commerce and industry as a disinfectant. No testing presented by the manufacturers of stabilized chlorine dioxide, or the original inventors, has proven any different. The test results presented have little substance, and the references stated are usually unobtainable. Despite heavy advertising and literature to the contrary, no topical efficacy has been shown on any body part other than for odor removal by oxidizing sulfur compounds. This is of interest because the first stabilized chlorine dioxide products (Purogene, Oxine, Anthium Dioxcide) were marketed over 35 years ago.
Usage of Term Stabilized Chlorine Dioxide
For many years, the manufacturers of stabilized chlorine dioxide appropriated the term “stabilized” to capitalize on the beneficial properties of chlorine dioxide, but further, the misuse of the term leads researchers or doctors, not realizing the difference, to then describe a concentration of sodium chlorite in their own lectures or papers as, “chlorine dioxide.” For example, “2% chlorine dioxide” (instead of sodium chlorite) would appear in a new published paper or patent, which if true (20,000 ppm), would actually be dangerous. (OSHA imposes a workplace 8-hour exposure maximum of 0.1ppm in the air.) However, such a high concentration of chlorine dioxide could probably not be attainable in the first place.

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