Dangers of Iodine crystal?

[psy-ops]

5 years ago, before my 3 yr old son came around, I was doing a lot of wilderness skills activities. I had the Hoods woods video series and I got my Iodine bottle thing together.

I noticed where ever I stored that thing there was something weird happening. I decided to store it in my shed in a plastic bin. There was some other items in the bin. One item, in particular was a quart paint can. This summer, I re-organized my shed and went though all my stored gear. That paint can had almost totally deteriorated from rust. Interestingly I had other exact similar cans in another bin...hardly any rust at all.

How dangerous is carrying this stuff? Where do others store theirs?

 

[tknife]

Yup it will put rust on any metal next to it super quick. I had the instruction sheet wrapped around the bottle, and it turned completely dark brown and illegible! I found a plastic prescription medicine bottle that the glass bottle the crystals are in would slide into. Also, I store it filled with water and in the fridge, and it won't bother anything now.
But yeah, it's definitely toxic in anything other than the very small reccomended quantity.

 

[storl]

Take a look at chlorine dioxide (Micropur, specifically) as an alternative. It performs better according to the filters and chemicals test that the military did. I am replacing my iodine with Micropur in my kits and will either trash or give away the iodine. I don't like what it can do to the things around it.

 

[znode]

Iodine sublimes under room temperature into a purple/pinkish gas (think dry ice, it doesn't melt into the liquid form, but turns to gas directly). And since iodine is a halogen, the gas is very corrosive to metals (well, along with everything else, but metals would be most visibly affected).

The human body uses 0.00015 grams (0.000005 oz) of iodine a day. More than that can definitely cause iodine poisoning. The symptoms are incidentally pretty similar to iodine deficiency (goiters, etc).

Short form: Iodine => corrosive gas! Keep your nice carbon customs far away!

 

[pitdog]

I posted a while back about how my bottle of Iodine had leaked in my PSK bag and when I got in found my lower back was all burned !!!!

 

[kgd]

Hey pitdog - it could of been worse. You could've been wearing that fanny pack front side and burned something more sensitive

 

[swedishdwarf]

Take a look at chlorine dioxide (Micropur, specifically) as an alternative. It performs better according to the filters and chemicals test that the military did. I am replacing my iodine with Micropur in my kits and will either trash or give away the iodine. I don't like what it can do to the things around it.

But doesn't chlorine dioxide take eight hours to work, where iodine takes only fifteen minutes?

 

[pitdog]

Hey pitdog - it could of been worse. You could've been wearing that fanny pack front side and burned something more sensitive

Never thought of that bro.....man that could have been nasty !!!!

 

[kr1]

But doesn't chlorine dioxide take eight hours to work, where iodine takes only fifteen minutes?

It can take that long but most often not. It depends on the water condition and what you are trying to kill, but it will kill things that iodine won't kill no matter how long the contact time.

Another +1 for the chlorine dioxide. I have switched to it in my kit.

KR

 

[task force k]

Never thought of that bro.....man that could have been nasty !!!!

That was my first thought, too. Shows where I do my thinking, I guess.