Hydrogen Peroxide as a Natural Remedy: Benefits and Precautions - Ted's Q&A

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H2O2 Labeling

Posted by Janette (Victoria, British Columbia) on 10/24/2006

I am writing to ask why my bottle of Hydrogen Peroxide USP 3%Solution/10 Volume is labeled "poison" and states "CONTENTS HARMFUL Do not swallow. Do not get in eyes or clothing....if swallowed call a poison control center or physician immediately. If in eyes, rinse well with water. If on clothes, remove them. If breathed in, move person into fresh air." I have been reading your site's testimonials and the few "nays" that are sent in, and nowhere is the issue of product warnings by manufacturers addressed. It kind of scares me to just ignore product warnings and take HP anyway as many responders seem to be doing. Is this situation just aCanadian thing? Ie gov't prohibition? I look forward to hearing from you about my concerns. Thank-you so much.

Replied by Ted
Bangkok, Thailand
392 posts

Most H2O2 3% labels are the type you buy from drug stores, they tend to add stabilizers to discourage people from using it internally. Often stabilizers is not really needed as H2O2 even in food grade are amazingly stable even without stabilizers. However, when some people do use the "drug store brands" but they do not drink this directly. They will just add only about 6 drops per glass of water whenever they have a bad cases of sickness. However I would not recommend such use.

I would much prefer to use H2O2 3% intended for mouthwash, in this case, I can use this taken internally such as 6-12 drops per glass of water. In this situation, the companies producing it will often not add the stabilizers. You can tell. Pour it in a glass, or put a couple of drops in glass of water in direct sunlight. If they did add the stabilizers you should be able to see a swirling pale yellow colors as you add this. The other thing is the H2O2 with stabilizers tend to have a drug smell, while the one that does not have it has a little of ozone smell.

If on the other hand you use for external use only, then it doesn't matter what source of H2O2 you use. In general, food companies use H2O2 food grade to sterilized food and milk products. So they might sell this to you, if you know someone who works in the industry.

I would much prefer to buy a food grade H2O2 over the internet than from drug stores. Again I think the reason why they do this is to stop people using H2O2 internally, as in adding poisons or bad tasting chemicals in ethyl alcohol when they are sold on the market.


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