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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> > Years ago when we learned how Chlorox breaks down into dioxin

To follow up on the Chlorox to dioxin misconception:

A few years ago I attended an organic farmers' gathering near here and 
attended a workshop on tomato blight.  When the topic of ridding tomato 
sticks of 
blight came up (which itself was ridiculous, wilt can be carried in the 
stakes 
but blight cannot), someone suggested dipping the tomato stakes in a weak 
Chlorox solution.  There was immediate rending of garments and heaping of 
ashes by 
the person giving the talk:  "Don't you know Chlorox breaks down into 
dioxins?!!!!"

It was a very enlightening gathering.  I noted seven different myths that 
came up upon which people based their entire farming methods but were only a 
misconception of some other actual phenomenon.  The Chlorox/dioxin is one of 
them:

Chlorox is sodium-hypochlorite in very weak solution.  Pulp mills almost 
always use chlorine dioxide gas to bleach pulp for paper.  At the very high 
temperatures used the chlorine dioxide gas reacts with lignin and other 
organic 
compounds in the paper to produce dioxins.  Gradually this practice is being 
replaced by oxygen bleaching which will probably have its own hazards.  But 
household chlorine bleach cannot "break down" into a dioxin compound, it's 
just not 
possible.  In the environment Chlorox breaks down into chlorine gas, salt, 
and 
water.  As a cleaner you couldn't ask for something more environmentally safe.

Here's the funny thing, if you wanted to rid the environment and especially 
your homestead of dioxins, avoiding Chlorox doesn't do a thing for you, but 
avoiding bleached paper does.  Bleached paper contains trace (but 
significant) 
levels of residual dioxins and they are released in their most harmful state 
when the paper is burned.

James