How to Sterilize Medical Oxygen

Medical Oxygen

• 1

  Buy oxygen gas cylinders from a reputable commercial supplier -- aviation, research, welding and medical oxygen are all chemically identical.

• 2

  Add moisture to it to create "medical" oxygen. In a hospital, this is done through a special supply system.

• 3

  Study and follow all safety regulations for the use of oxygen gas. It does not burn or explode, but in an oxygen-enriched atmosphere, things that do burn will catch fire more quickly and things that do not normally burn will ignite.

• 4

  Fulfill a need for home medical oxygen therapy by using a portable oxygen concentrator that draws oxygen from the air, accumulates it and supplies it to a patient in the prescribed volume. These are safer, less expensive and far easier to manage than oxygen cylinders.

Ozone

• 5

  Sterilize surgical instruments and other operating room and laboratory supplies with ozone in an autoclave that makes its own ozone from oxygen, water and electricity. Since all these things are readily available in a hospital, ozone sterilization is highly cost-effective.

• 6

  Purify drinking water by treating it with ozone. Ozone generators are available to treat water on an industrial, commercial and municipal scale, as well as for home use.

• 7

  Sanitize commercial food processing equipment with ozone in liquid (ozonated water) or gas form to prevent cross-contamination.

• 8

  Obtain an ozone generator for the home refrigerator to improve the keeping qualities of meat, vegetables, fruit, cheese and eggs by destroying microorganisms.

• 9

  Install an ozone generator in a hot tub, spa or swimming pool for low-cost water purification and maintenance.

Hydrogen Peroxide

• 10

  Buy 3 percent (household strength) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2, or water with an extra oxygen molecule) only; food-grade (35 percent) is too strong for household use.

• 11

  Pour household hydrogen peroxide on minor cuts, scrapes and scratches to clean them

• 12

  Sanitize toothbrushes by dipping them in 3 percent hydrogen peroxide after each use. Use it as a mouthwash, but rinse with water afterward to avoid irritation of the mucous membranes.

• 13

  Follow the conservative and common-sense advice of the popular Internet research website Snopes.com: "Most external uses of household-strength hydrogen peroxide are relatively harmless (if not necessarily helpful), but internal use should be shunned."