Iodine for the Disinfection of Water

This article discusses several studies on the use of iodine for the disinfection of water: the 1958 study of the effectiveness of iodine for the disinfection of swimming pools at the University of Florida; the 1963 study of two water systems serving three prisons at Lowell, Florida; and, the 1964 study of the presence of pollution and the role that iodine might play as a viricide in the water system of Gainesville, Florida. The article briefly discusses a sensitive and reproducible colorimetric method for the determination of iodine, iodide, and iodate ion residuals in water. The method allows for the accurate determination of iodine in the presence of a coexisting free or combined chlorine residual. With simple modification, a free chlorine residual may be rapidly and accurately determined without interference from high concentrations of combined chlorine, at relatively high water temperatures. Total chlorine is determined by the addition of iodide and the combined chlorine is obtained by the difference.