Monona, once again, just as we thought we had seen it all, you bring us news of someone who has managed to create a new low in health and safety in the workplace. And I thought that was the exclusive purview of us academics... wrong again!

While this all sounds like a nightmare, here is a suggestion just in case your clients decide to go ahead with their experiment in measuring human infection rates.

How about bromine? Like most, I use chlorine in our pool, but pool shops also carry "bromine" i.e tablets that release bromine; it is used when people are allergic or react to chlorine, and is apparently effective as a sterilizer. I would reason that bromine is a less powerful oxidant than chlorine, and so the red dyes might be more stable and oxidized less, or less fast. No idea if this will work, just a suggestion.

Best,
Paul

On Thu, 29 Nov 2012 20:10:00 -0500
ACTSNYC**At_Symbol_Here**CS.COM wrote:
> Once again I'm hoping you all can find someone who can help with a problem
> that would cross a Rabbi's eyes.
>
> A famous theater in NYC is planning a production in which people will wade
> through a 1500 gallon pool of "blood" a few times a week for about 6 weeks.
> They've been doing some tests on a mixture of commercial stage blood
> diluted 1:10 with water. Since stage blood is made with a lot of dyes, corn
> syrup, propylene glycol and methyl parabens, and since diluting it will cause the
> parabens to fail, and since they will be using this over many weeks at 90 o
> F and regularly introduce the living organisms from a bunch of feet, they
> thought they could used pool chemicals (mostly sodium dichloroisocyanurate)
> to keep it from functioning like a giant petrii dish.
>
> However, in their "tests" the amount of chlorine just doesn't get up to a
> safe level. I'm not surprised since dyes are high nitrogen compounds, there
> are organic chemicals presents, etc.
>
> I'm also concerned that the dyes are fading with the chlorine application
> and breaking down. That means there may be small amounts of some really
> toxic stuff in there.
>
> This is beyond me. I can help with the dyes, but they need someone who can
> figure out more about the chemicals likely to be created in this soup and
> if we need to look in a completely different direction for a solution to this
> problem.
>
> I'm taking names and suggestions from one and all.
>
> Monona Rossol, M.S., M.F.A.,
> industrial hygienist
> Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety, Inc.
> and
> Safety Officer,
> United Scenic Artist's, Local USA829
> International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes (IATSE)
> 181 Thompson St., #23
> New York NY 10012-2586 212/777-0062
>
> artscraftstheatersafety.org

Paul Harrison
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
McMaster University
1280 Main St. W., Hamilton, ON, L8S 4M1, Canada
Phone: (905)525-9140 ext. 27290; FAX: (905)522-2509