# bleach and soap are they good for health?



## Will2 (Mar 20, 2013)

so I was reading over a field manual again, medical decontamination FM 4-02.7

I was surprised that the two major items for decontamination for biological and chemical were soap and bleach

other items are just sharp bladed items for clothing removal
and bandages I would suppose for treating chemical burns and otherwise. 

It is surprising that the methods are so simple?


so does everybody here prep soap and bleach if not is it just a waste for the average prep?

I'm becoming more and more surprised how important bleach is in terms of its sheer number of usages.


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## Old SF Guy (Dec 15, 2013)

Bleach has so many uses from decontamination...to sterilization to purification...It kills germs and viruses and other nasty stuff...so it is good. Soap as well kills germs so it also is good.


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## Kahlan (Sep 16, 2014)

I have a _lot_ of bleach put back. I slowed down stocking it though when I read that the effectiveness starts to degrade after 6 months.
If so then I need to rotate my bleach a lot more frequently but I have more than I could ever possibly use. I know we need bleach in a long term situation so not sure what to do about that. Alternatives?


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## thepeartree (Aug 25, 2014)

I prep both for the reasons above. I may swap out soap for Boraxo hand cleaner plus a hand sanitizer. Soap itself leaves way too many signs of its use to be a safe thing in a bugout. Even if you rinse in a stream, someone can spot the bubbles and know that someone is around. Same for soap scum on the ground.


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## paraquack (Mar 1, 2013)

Since bleach is only good for about a year before it starts losing strength, I end up giving my old bleach to a neighbor for his pool and buy more for me. Soap I keep a fair supply on hand plus have the recipe for making it. One thing I never understood. I've read post from people who buy and store Lye (a necessary ingredient) for the SHTF event. Considering the *hazardous* nature of the Lye, wouldn't it just be simpler and less dangerous to by soap and store it? Just MHO.


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## survival (Sep 26, 2011)

paraquack said:


> Considering the *hazardous* nature of the Lye, wouldn't it just be simpler and less dangerous to by soap and store it?


99% of your soaps on the market are actually detergents and not made from actual lye (sodium hydroxide). During soap making with lye, the end product will not have lye in it due to the chemical reactions with the oils. Lye has numerous of uses in a prepping environment.

I store (hoard) white vinegar, rubbing alcohol, peroxide, vodka, tequila, lye, bleach, and gobstoppers.

Be careful when ordering/buying lye from local LEO... in my area stores are starting to stop selling it, or have plans to ID you for local LEO reporting. Too many idiot meth makers are using it in my area.

I order it off the Internet in bulk and its $2/lb vs $10/lb at local hardware stores.


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## BlackDog (Nov 23, 2013)

Kahlan said:


> I know we need bleach in a long term situation so not sure what to do about that. Alternatives?


Get some Calcium Hypochlorite pool shock, preferably with 78% available chlorine. It is a dry powder that can be used to make your own bleach for water purification, sterilization, laundry, barter, etc. Care must be used in storage and handling but it's good stuff to store. 1lb is enough to purify 10,000 gallons of water and cost is only about $5.

http://www.hydropool.com/cgi-bin/hy...LIFE-TurboShock-78-Pool-Shock-1-lb/22405.html


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## Sasquatch (Dec 12, 2014)

As long as the bleach is still good it'll kill just about everything. Soap on the other hand is used to grab the dirt, grime and particulates to get it off of whatever needs to be cleaned. Both always great to have but need to be rotated. Bleach will start going bad after about 3 months depending on where it is stored (it'll go bad even faster if opened) and soap can go bad as well. It separates and no longer bonds to dirt.


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