What is Lotus Clean Shock? Is it dangerous?
Response:
The product consists of sodium chlorite and sodium hypochlorite. In water, these two chemicals start a process that produces chlorine dioxide. Chlorine dioxide consists of one chlorine atom connected to two oxygen atoms. During the reaction in the water, the two oxygen atoms react. The chlorine atom combines with the sodium in the water to form sodium chloride. Sodium chloride is common table salt. This is why we can speak of chlorine-free disinfection.
Why so complicated?
Chlorine dioxide in its pure form is an explosive gas. Therefore, it cannot be transported. Chlorine dioxide is indeed water-soluble. But water can only absorb 0.3%. Therefore, you cannot use water as a carrier medium. You would have to pour several litres of it into the whirlpool water. Not very practical.
Hence the trick of permanently forming chlorine dioxide in the whirlpool water with the help of two types of chlorine. In this way enough chlorine dioxide is formed and it is not dangerous.
The chlorine used is completely used up. If this chlorine reacts with dirt before it is used up and forms chloramines, which are dangerous to health, this is not a problem as the chlorine dioxide also oxidises chloramines and removes them immediately. And the most dangerous thing about chlorine is not the chlorine but the chloramines.
What is so great about chlorine dioxide?
1) It does not form any toxic waste products during oxidation. Unlike chlorine.
2) It is selectively effective. It reacts preferentially with sulphur compounds. These are found mainly in pathogenic (disease-causing) anaerobic germs that metabolise without oxygen. It has difficulty killing aerobic bacteria. This is important because the skin harbours a lot of aerobic bacteria. And these bacteria should not be killed. This brings us to point 3.
3) Chlorine dioxide cannot penetrate the skin cells and therefore cannot destroy them. This is what Japanese researchers have found out. One has to consider the different effects of chlorine and chlorine dioxide. In water there is usually a pH value between 7 and 8 and in the skin, especially the lower skin layers, there is a pH value of 5.5. The pH value wants to equalise. This creates an osmotic pressure that sucks the water with a high pH value into the skin. And thus also sucks the chlorine or chlorine dioxide into the skin. And here both substances act extremely differently. Chlorine has the greatest effect at very low pH values. Chlorine destroys all bacteria. The aerobic and the anaerobic bacteria. Chlorine destroys the skin cells. And chlorine destroys the fats in the skin. And in this destruction, chlorine forms chloramines in the skin which, depending on the type of chloramine, are known to be mildly irritating to harmful to health to carcinogenic. That is why many people have problems with chlorine. Chlorine dioxide mainly destroys anaerobic "disease-causing" bacteria. It has no effect on skin cells. It has little effect on aerobic bacteria and little effect on fats. We have also been able to prove this dermatologically by carrying out a test with 27 test persons. Lotus Clean Shock finished like fresh tap water. No reactions at all. This is also the reason why many people with neurodermatitis have no skin problems with Lotus Clean products and even find it pleasant. And another advantage: the skin does not smell penetratingly of chlorine for hours.
4) Lotus Clean Shock works 100% at any pH value up to 9.0. Chlorine at a pH of 8.0 is only 30% as effective as at a pH of 7.0.
5) Lotus Clean Shock does not react with the polysaccharides that make up biofilm. Bacteria encapsulate themselves with the biofilm to protect themselves from external influences. Biofilm can form within a few days. Because Lotus Clean Shock does not react with the biofilm and can easily penetrate the biofilm due to its gaseous nature, it can kill the bacteria in the biofilm. This dissolves the biofilm because only living bacteria can form new biofilms. Chlorine, on the other hand, reacts with the biofilm. It cannot penetrate it either. When it tries to destroy the biofilm from the outside, it consumes itself and forms chloramines. The bacteria in the biofilm remain alive and immediately form new biofilm. Biofilm is only eliminated at chlorine levels above 5.0 mg/l.
6) Lotus Clean Shock does not contain cyanuric acid.
7) Lotus Clean Shock does not form acids in the water. Therefore, the alkalinity of the water is uninteresting. This means that the pH value can be lowered massively in one go, and not in small steps as with chlorine. Because chlorine forms acids in water, e.g. cyanuric acid and also hypochlorous acid, the water can become corrosive very quickly. And it extracts plasticisers from the plastics. This destroys cushions, nozzles and insulating covers. This does not happen when using Lotus Clean Shock.
That is also the only disadvantage of Lotus Clean Shock. Because it is not an acid, it does not automatically lower the pH-value, which leads to more work in lowering the pH-value at first. (You have to lower the pH value because otherwise it can lead to lime precipitation) But this is also an advantage: The pH value remains more stable later than with chlorine because (organic) chlorine permanently lowers the pH value.
8) Lotus Clean Shock kills legionella very well. This is also the reason why the basic ingredient, chlorine dioxide, is approved for the sanitation of water pipes in case of legionella infestation. And water is subject to food law in Germany.
9) Bacteria cannot become resistant to Lotus Clean Shock. Shock destroys the DNA of the bacteria. Bacteria can become resistant to chlorine.
10) It is 5 to 30 times more effective than chlorine. Depending on external circumstances.
11) Lotus Clean Shock is hardly broken down by the heat of the water and is therefore effective longer than chlorine in the water.
12) Lotus Clean Shock has deodorising properties, i.e. odour and taste substances in the water, e.g. from phenols, algae or their decomposition products, are transformed or are not produced in the first place. The water smells fresh and has no chemical odour.
13) Lotus Clean Shock reliably kills bacteria, viruses, legionella, algae, fungi and mould.
Lotus Clean Shock can be combined with chlorine. We use this for intensive basic cleaning of pipes. We destroy biofilms simultaneously from the outside and from the inside. However, we do not have dosing instructions for such a combination for permanent use.
We combine Lotus Clean Shock with Lotus Clean Basic because the two substances complement each other perfectly. For these two substances, we have gained a very reliable knowledge base and a lot of practical experience over the past 10 years.