Talk:Bleach

This is ridiculous
So much space for environmental issues and no mention of toxicity and health risks? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 91.49.252.69 (talk) 03:45, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Elemental Chlorine
This edit discussed the environmental effect of elemental chlorine. I've removed it because elemental chlorine isn't used as a bleach per se, but I see that the article does contain a section "Chlorine Effects on Human Health". Does this need to be trimmed as well? --

Chemistry of Hypochlorite
Today I changed the Chemistry section from

"The process of bleaching can be summarized in the following set of chemical reactions:.."

to its present version

"The active ingredient in bleach, hypochorite ion, is produced by the following set of chemical reactions:.."

Rationale: The process of bleaching is not the chemistry of hypochorite ion formation per se, but rather the process by which hypochlorite ion bleaches chromophores.

Lawrence Chemistry (talk) 19:05, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

"these products usually contain hypochlorite, which releases chlorine when needed." The phrase "when needed" was uninformative. A more scientific explanation of the "release" conditions might improve the article. Lacking that myself, I dropped the unexplained phrase. LoneStarNot (talk) 15:50, 9 July 2022 (UTC)

Disinfection (formerly Dilution)/Water Treatment
The recommendation of treating water with 8 drops per gallon for 15 minutes does not match the recommendations I see from several government emergency management sites, and while it may be adequate for many situations, it can result in insufficiently treated water. The statement about further concentrations being no more effective and toxic is misleading, as it depends on how much bleach is consumed in treatment. The most significant issue is with contact time, 15 minutes is not long enough unless the water is relatively warm. Very cold, highly suspect water may require 4 times as much bleach and contact time.

As this can have serious health ramifications, the recommendations presented need to be more thoroughly researched and documented. Bcworkz (talk) 16:44, 25 December 2011 (UTC)

OK, I researched several resources and aggregated the recommendations for water treatment. I renamed the section to better represent the main content. The citation placed after the statement about further concentrations being no more effective and being toxic does not relate to the statement, so I moved the citation to the paragraph related to disinfecting surfaces, for which it does relate. I rephrased the statement to be less sensational. I also added text to indicate determining proper dilution levels is not that simple, and that boiling is preferred to bleach for treating water.75.174.186.30 (talk) 21:59, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Chloride of lime?
Why does chloride of lime redirect here, with no further explanation in the body of the article? I'm assuming it's some variety of bleaching agent, but I'm thinking it's more likely a calcium based one, although old names for various substances could be inexact. I am always sorely vexed when redirects like this happen with no reference to them in the body. I am hoping whoever set that redirect up can put something into the article to explain it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.238.212.29 (talk) 13:34, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

As far as I can determine, chloride of lime is not a generic term for bleach, and may refer more directly to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_hypochlorite but I'm just having to intuit that right now... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.238.212.29 (talk) 13:45, 19 January 2012 (UTC)

Calcium hypochlorite is chloride of lime. This is a simple thing to add to an article in the relevant location, e.g.: "Calcium hypochlorite, also known as chloride of lime..." etc. If you don't see it yourself and you know the answer, you are always welcome to edit an article to include such uncontroversial information. But you are correct when you say that there should be a mention of chloride of lime somewhere— whoever made the redirect did it poorly and not in accordance with Wikipedia's style guidelines. KDS 4444 Talk   14:33, 31 August 2013 (UTC)

Use-by dates
So sodium hypochlorite breaks down gradually in water (and all non-hazardous forms are sold as a solution in water), but there's no reference for how long household bleach maintains its effectiveness. ~ender 2012-05-26 10:17:AM MST — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.165.52.42 (talk)

Mode of Action has a misleading explaination
"Bleach, particularly sodium hypochlorite, has been shown to react with a microbe's heat shock proteins, stimulating their role as intra-cellular chaperone and causing the bacteria to form into clumps (much like an egg that has been boiled) that will eventually die off.[8]"

This wording makes it seem like the heat shock proteins cause this clumping, which it does not. It actually provides protections from low levels of sodium hypochlorite according to the article it cites. I suggest it gives a brief overview and instead links to the more in depth explanation in Hypochlorous acid. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.178.146.12 (talk) 01:28, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Toxicity
there's nothing about toxicity here, particularly in relation to the concentrations of bleach / hypochlorite used in water treatment and decontamination of animal feedstuffs (bleaching powder). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.140.128.118 (talk) 07:42, 12 October 2012 (UTC)

Chemical interactions seems bloated and unsourced.
The bottom half of the chemial interactions section is totally unsourced and feels like it's been written very quickly. Perhaps the whole "chemical interactions" section should be moved to the hypochlorite page? Sp3hybrid (talk) 07:24, 5 June 2013 (UTC)

Cleaning
So bleach doesn't actually clean things then, it just disinfects them and hides the dirt? Or is there some process not mentioned whereby it helps marks and contamination to decompose and wash off? This is a generally held belief, and needs to be dealt with by someone with technical knowledge.Ripov (talk) 12:07, 19 April 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110609033024/http://www.clorox.com/blogs/dr-laundry/2008/06/10/your-questions-disinfecting-laundry/ to http://www.clorox.com/blogs/dr-laundry/2008/06/10/your-questions-disinfecting-laundry/

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External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100619114657/http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/BRM/resources/Disinfectants/Disinfection101Feb2005.pdf to http://www.cfsph.iastate.edu/BRM/resources/Disinfectants/Disinfection101Feb2005.pdf
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100614021743/http://www.vahealth.org/childadolescenthealth/EarlyChildhoodHealth/HealthyChildCareVA/documents/2009/doc/Disinfectionguidelines-childcare_8_14_09_FINAL.doc to http://www.vahealth.org/childadolescenthealth/EarlyChildhoodHealth/HealthyChildCareVA/documents/2009/doc/Disinfectionguidelines-childcare_8_14_09_FINAL.doc

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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20050110114940/http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthguidelines/chlorine/ to http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/healthguidelines/chlorine

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Orphaned references in Bleach
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Bleach's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "WHO2008": From Chlorine-releasing compounds:  From Sodium thiosulfate:  From Benzoyl peroxide:  From Chlorhexidine:  From Hygiene:  

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 15:23, 16 June 2018 (UTC)

Permanganate Salts
The entry "Permanganate salts" in the list of "Peroxide-based bleaches" is incorrect. The oxidizing power of permanganate comes from the manganese, not the oxygen. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Michaeld42 (talk • contribs) 03:20, 16 April 2019 (UTC)

PPE
The article now states "Personal protective equipment should always be used when using bleach." Ideally, yes, this is true. However, I would imagine that 99%+ of domestic bleach users do not do this. Is there a better way of phrasing this? -- The Anome (talk) 08:40, 24 April 2019 (UTC)

Add splash-less bleach information
Never written before!

Splash-less bleach needs to be covered or needs a separate article.

The splash-less bleach product does not disinfect. There are many vendors. I've chosen Clorox as an example.

The label on a Clorox bottle states this in tiny print on the back of the bottle! From their website's customer response area, "... the Splash-less Bleach formula is not registered with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a disinfectant, we provide an explanation on the back of the label stating that it should not be used for sanitizing or disinfecting."

This flies in the face of my understanding - and I assume I am not unique - that bleach sanitizes and disinfects. And personally, I associate the Clorox brand with this cleaning function.

I initially came into Wikipedia to find out if I could combine splash-less and normal bleach - I have a bit of normal bleach left in the previous container. After learning the above, it is clear I better not do that; not because of their chemical natures, but because I'd be left with a poor product for sanitizing or disinfecting.

Thanks, Kevin
 * What is the difference between splash-less bleach and splashy bleach? Roxy, the dog . wooF 12:37, 5 May 2019 (UTC)

"Blanqueador" listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Blanqueador. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. –LaundryPizza<b style="color:#b00">03</b> ( d c̄ ) 20:41, 24 April 2020 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 April 2020
Remove political garbage associated with trump and miracle healing water that is false info. 2600:6C5A:4480:264D:106C:4A1D:E423:A911 (talk) 04:36, 27 April 2020 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Cannolis (talk) 07:08, 27 April 2020 (UTC)

False claims section
This section contains an unsourced statement: "This method of treatment was mentioned by the U.S. President Trump in an April 23, 2020 briefing".

Of the three sources cited for it:


 * Source 1 says "leader of group peddling bleach as coronavirus 'cure' wrote to Trump this week", which is not him mentioning it.
 * Source 2 does not mention any relevant statement; it only discusses other things at the conference.
 * Source 3 does contain the word "bleach", but it is the words of the journalist; it quotes Trump talking about "injections" and "disinfectants", which is vague and does not reference a specific treatment. We could reword the statement to "Trump's comments at a press conference were interpreted by the New York Times as being in reference to bleach", but that seems pretty shaky.

TBH I think we should remove the whole section, because it places undue weight on a specific false claim about this chemical. But at minimum we should remove the unsourced claim. Roxy the dog, since you reverted my attempt to do this, could you please weigh in? --136.24.55.183 (talk) 16:36, 29 July 2020 (UTC)
 * I wont change back to my version. It's the donald we are talking about. That was the "heat and light" briefing, wasn't it? -Roxy the inedible dog . wooF 20:45, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Bleaching powder
Bleaching powder is calcium oxychloride, or calcium hypochlorite. Bleach is not Bleaching powder. Bleaching powder not to be redirected to Bleach. Huzaifa abedeen (talk) 05:57, 9 October 2020 (UTC) --Huzaifa abedeen

Bleaching agent
Bleach is not generic name. Bleach is a specific name for sodium hypochlorite. Bleaching agent is the generic name for chemicals used in Bleaching. Huzaifa abedeen (talk) 06:05, 9 October 2020 (UTC) --Huzaifa abedeen

Bleach, Bleaching powder, Bleaching agent, and Bleaching
Bleach, Bleaching powder, Bleaching agent, and Bleaching; all are different from one another, but all redirected to bleach. Huzaifa abedeen (talk) 06:11, 9 October 2020 (UTC) --Huzaifa abedeen


 * A substance which removes colour from coloured fabric or fiber or a substance which cleans or removes stains is called a Bleaching agent.
 * The process of removing colour from coloured fabric or fiber or the process of cleaning or removing stains is called Bleaching.
 * Bleaching powder is calcium oxychloride, or calcium hypochlorite.
 * Bleach is sodium hypochlorite.

Semi-protected edit request on 9 October 2020
We need to remove the claim that Trump mentioned bleach as a treatment, because it is not true. I suggest removing this sentence (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bleach&diff=982531444&oldid=981864799), though removing the whole section would also do, since this is IMO undue coverage to a specific false claim.

When User:Roxy the dog reverted this change I made (after agreeing to not revert it a while back), they cited this source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52407177 This source also does not support the claim that Trump mentioned bleach. It is very clear about Trump having mentioned "disinfectant", not "bleach". Though it does cleverly equivocates the two by mentioning it a paragraph after an unrelated study involving bleach.

I found this source explicitly outlining this crucial distinction, which the reverters and protectors did not respond to: https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jul/11/joe-biden/no-trump-didnt-tell-americans-infected-coronavirus/

> Biden said Trump said drinking bleach could help fight the coronavirus. Trump did not specifically recommend ingesting disinfectants, but he did express interest in exploring whether disinfectants could be applied to the site of a coronavirus infection inside the body, such as the lungs. We rate Biden’s claim Mostly False. 136.24.55.183 (talk) 16:23, 9 October 2020 (UTC)

Alleged sources for Trump's "mention" of bleach
User:JzG, I'm very confused by your remarks:


 * Where has this been "done to death before"? I previously discussed this with another editor here, and we agreed on a compromise wording, but then it was reverted, which is why I'm back here.
 * I have reviewed four distinct reliable sources cited for this claim. None of them support the assertion that Trump mentioned bleach, only a far weaker claim about "disinfectant". I do not contest the accuracy of the sources. I contest the Wikipedia summary of them, which makes a statement unsupported by them.
 * As you note, it is a common misconception that Trump mentioned bleach. So shouldn't we ensure that the relevant Wikipedia article contains the truth, rather than the common misconception?

I don't think that a compromise of adding a fact-checking sentence is sufficient, because currently the misconception is stated in Wikipedia's voice. Would you be amenable to my previous compromise, which states the misconception in the voice of the news outlets who promoted it? https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bleach&diff=970162949&oldid=970001272 --136.24.55.183 (talk) 18:13, 9 October 2020 (UTC)


 * I removed the paragraph. It's really useless. Necatorina (talk) 14:55, 3 July 2024 (UTC)

Carbon tetrachloride?
How does NaOCl bleach make carbon tetrachloride? We know that it makes chloroform via Haloform reaction, but carbon tetrachloride? Necatorina (talk) 14:54, 3 July 2024 (UTC)