Disinfecting agent for the BC that kills all fungi and TB-inducing bacteria?

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kr2y5

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There have been a bunch of threads recently referring to the case of a guy, who is now living in agony and waiting for a lung transplant because he took one breath from his BCD and got infected with invasive fungi, even though he claims that he never skimped on pre- and post-dive maintenance and looked after his equipment better than after his wife. The article mentions that the cleaning agent one uses should be effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. What disinfecting agent are you using for your BCD, and do you know whether it is really effective against all the wonderful things that may be growing inside?
 
I haven't tried it but what about Listerine or another mouthwash. Listerine has alcohol so should kill germs as the ad says.
 
microban or steramine. I prefer Steramine. Microban is good, but I wouldn't buy it just because it is the only one that put dive equipment on their label. Steramine is what they use for disinfecting food surfaces across most industries and it's super cheap.
 
Vinegar with a little dilute bleach and some mild soap mixed in. It's an extremely effective anti-biological. Kills fungi, bacteria, and virus.
 
tastes real bad though.... bleach also is incompatible with silicone which a lot of newer regulators have in their diaphragms.
 
microban or steramine. I prefer Steramine. Microban is good, but I wouldn't buy it just because it is the only one that put dive equipment on their label. Steramine is what they use for disinfecting food surfaces across most industries and it's super cheap.

Steramine certainly seems to be in use with a lot of people and thus should have a good performance record, however it was not tested in dive gear.

Also, whatever disinfectant you decide to use (not counting vinegar which I don't believe will kill Hepatitis and other pathogens), make sure you read the lable to see what the recommended contact time is. Just pouring it in and immediately rinsing it out is not going to provide proper disinfection.
 
There have been a bunch of threads recently referring to the case of a guy, who is now living in agony and waiting for a lung transplant because he took one breath from his BCD and got infected with invasive fungi, even though he claims that he never skimped on pre- and post-dive maintenance and looked after his equipment better than after his wife. The article mentions that the cleaning agent one uses should be effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. What disinfecting agent are you using for your BCD, and do you know whether it is really effective against all the wonderful things that may be growing inside?

AFAIK, there is nothing you can rinse a BC with that won't destroy it and is guaranteed to kill everything, so I just make sure I never inhale.

> "The last thing I did was ensure that the manual inflator was working, both in and out. I took two deep breaths, and there was a taste of mould when I breathed in. "

While it's nice to be sure you can manually inflate, there is no valid reason for inhaling from the BC bladder.

flots.
 
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I soak all of my stuff, but I have no reason not to use it because it wasn't tested with dive gear by the manufacturer, there's nothing special about dive gear or the pathogens we are trying to kill that would be cause for concern. Considering the amount of CCR mfg's that recommend it for sterilizing the loops, I'm happy using it on OC and CCR gear alike. I use a higher concentration for OC since I don't soak it terribly long or use it as a spray disinfectant.
 
Vinegar with a little dilute bleach and some mild soap mixed in. It's an extremely effective anti-biological. Kills fungi, bacteria, and virus.

Bleach (NaCLO) + acid (Vinegar) will produce free chlorine gas. Chlorine would not be my choice to put into my wing bladder. . .
 

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