Can Septic Conditions Produce Hydrogen Peroxide?

Hydrogen Peroxide

• Hydrogen peroxide or H202 is a chemical with many interesting properties. Its common household use is an antiseptic, frequently used to clean minor cuts and scrapes to prevent infection. Hydrogen peroxide actually fights the very nature of septic conditions. Hydrogen peroxide, for that reason, is used in sewage-treatment plants and septic systems to moderate bacteria levels. Because it is a radical oxidizer, it is also used as both rocket fuel and catalyst for explosives.

Organic Production

• It doesn't sound like a rocket propellant, explosive, anti-septic, bleaching agent would be produced by a human infection or by human waste, but it is. For all its unusual properties, hydrogen peroxide is just water, H20, with an extra oxygen atom, H202. Many organic conditions actually convert water and oxygen into small amounts of hydrogen peroxide. So, for example, both the infections that hydrogen peroxide is used to treat and the wastewater systems hydrogen peroxide can be used to manage can both produce some quantity of hydrogen peroxide by themselves.

Oxidation

• For hydrogen peroxide to be created by a septic condition, oxygen must be present. Of course, oxygen is a component of water, which is always present in the body. To interact with a septic condition to produce hydrogen peroxide in greater quantities, a greater amount of oxygen must be present, which means atmospheric oxygen is required. So, the infection or the septic system that produces more hydrogen peroxide is not internal or sealed.

Infection and Oxidation

• The presence of bacteria and infection and the production of hydrogen peroxide, however, are discrete functions. While hydrogen peroxide conversion relies on a greater supply of oxygen than is found in an internal infection, infections themselves are not necessarily so picky; at least not all types. Infections can be caused by both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Anaerobic bacteria can happily thrive in sealed infections unlikely to produce. much hydrogen peroxide, just as aerobic bacteria can happily thrive in the oxygenated environments that facilitate higher conversion of hydrogen peroxide. While this is an interesting bit of organic chemistry, clearly neither aerobic or anaerobic sepsis produces a therapeutically adequate amount of hydrogen peroxide. If they did, they would reliably curtail themselves without the need for other interdiction. They may, however, contribute to a balancing act in fighting some infection.