INTRODUCTION
The spread of diseases from contaminated water has taken a vigorous rise globally. There is an increasing demand for a product that can be useful in disinfecting water from various disease causing microbes. Among various water-borne diseases, the common ones which are found in India are Diarrhoea, Typhoid, Malaria, Amoebiasis (Amoebic dysentery), Cholera, Giardiasis and Filariasis (Chabba, 2013)1. The contamination levels in water have taken a hike causing an increase in health hazards in societies globally. Water borne pathogens have major health impacts, relatively causing more damage to young children, underdeveloped and developing regions that lack proper supply of treated water. With the change in climate, the threat of water borne diseases also increase as seen in the rainy season where an escalation in spread of these diseases are observed. Water contamination level rises during emergencies like floods, tsunami, and heavy rains causing a massive outbreak of infectious diseases spreading via water.
A global study states that in developing countries diarrhoea accounted for 21% deaths of most children fewer than 5 years of age and total 2.5 million deaths per year (Kosek & Guerrant, 2003)2. An article of WHO stated that the water related diseases caused by microorganisms present in contaminated water leads to death of more than 3.4 million people each year in which most of the victims are young children. Also according to an assessment done by United Nations says that 4000 children die each day from diseases caused by ingestion of filthy water. Reports state that four out of every ten people in world do not have access to clean drinking water, particularly in African and Asian regions (Berman, 2009) 3. A study gives information on outbreak of different waterassociated infectious diseases spreading worldwide corelating it with socio-environmental factors and showing its impact on all regions globally (Yang, 2009)4.A mandatory access to pure water is required for improvement in the health conditions of people in
India too. Reports have stated that between 400000 and 500000 children with an age of around 5 years die every year from diarrhoea (a major water-borne disease) due to lack of personal and home hygiene in India (Murdur, 2003)5 . There is a need to purify available water to make it free from microbial contaminations that will help to slow down and cease the spread of water borne diseases in people and also mainly among children who are living in underdeveloped, poor and rural areas where contamination in water is high.There is an increasing demand for a product that can disinfect the water and make it suitable for the purposes of drinking, household works, washing, cleaning, cooking and other related activities.A product that can be beneficiary in all the situations is Ef-Chlor, which is being manufactured by Hind Pharma, India. EfChlor (manufactured in tablets as well as granules form) can be used for Water Purification, Sterilization and General Disinfection on nearly all objects. These are Sterilising Effervescent Tablets, which act as a broad-spectrum fast acting sanitizers and water sterilizers that are quick and effective against a wide range of Bacteria, Viruses, Fungi and Protozoa. These tablets are useful in a wide range of industries for disinfection of water and sterilization (Hind Pharma)6. Ef-Chlor consists of Sodium Dichloroisocyanurate (NaDCC) thatmaintains a continuous and prolonged supply of Chlorine, which reacts with organic matter and the various pathogens present in the water and kills them. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), World Health Organisation (WHO) and The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have marked NaDCC safe for usage. In addition to this United States and many other countries have listed NaDCC to be used in emergencies for the purpose of drinking water disinfection (Kuznesof, 2004 )7.
Ef-Chlor:- Genreal composition and working
Ef-Chlor is a product manufactured and marketed by Hind Pharma, India consisting adequate amount of NaDCC present in them. Each tablet of ef chlor is designed to supply a specific quantity of chlorine which can be used for disinfection of a particular volume of water. NaDCC has chlorine present in the hypochlorous forms (HOCl) which is an active antimicrobial agent showing effectiveness against a broad range of bacterias, fungi, viruses and protozoas. The production of NaDCC, its formulation, safety aspects, its working efficiency and other details are briefly presented by Paul M. Kuznesof (Kuznesof, 2004 )7 in his works. Ef-Chlor tablets containing NaDCC are dissolved in water to decontaminate it and make it suitable to be used for drinking and other household purposes. The high disinfecting ability of NaDCC and its antimicrobrial properties makes Ef-Chlor an advisable product to be used for
disnfection and sterilization purposes. NaDCC works on a broad spectrum of pathogens and a wide pH range. NaDCC has proven to be effective against different bacterial species and gave positive results in killing various pathogens. In addition to this NaDCC has delivered better working efficiency and shown higher activity then other formulations like NaOCl (Bloomfield, 1979)8. Biofilms are a mojor contaminant of water and thus their presence makes water unfit for any use and increases the possibility in the spread of water borne diseases. NaDCC has been tested and found to be effective against bacteria growing in planktonic as well as in biofilm cell populations. NaDCC did not only eliminated bacterias is planktonic population but also inhibited biofilms formation inactivating the
existing biofilms (Morgenthaua, 2012)9 . The high antibacterial properties of NaDCC makes Ef-Chlor convininet to be used for drinking water purification, household purposes, baby products sterilization, hospital disinfection, janitorial cleaning and other related application
Chemical action of Ef-Chlor (NaDCC in water)
NaDCC + H2O = HClO + Na+ + H2C4
–
Hydrolysis of chlorine compound Formation of hypochlorous acid
HClO = H+
+ ClOStabilization of hypochlorous acid at the pH of water
HClO = HCl + [O]
Decomposition of HClO to liberate nascent oxygen
[O] + MICROORGANISM = HCl + OXIDISED MICRO ORGANISM
(DEATH OF GERMS)
Oxidation & destruction of germs by nascent oxygen
Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is electrically neutral and hypochlorite ions (OCl-) are electrically negative in nature. The cell wall of pathogenic microorganisms is negatively charged usually which can be penetrated by the neutral hypochlorous acid, rather than by the negatively charged hypochlorite ion. Thus the free available chlorine released by NaDCC (and other chlorine donors, including the chlorinated isocyanurates) in solution will oxidise many organic and inorganic compounds in water.