I need a science-person's help. I use Katadin Micropur chlorine dioxide tablets for water purification. The individual wrapping wastes space and doesn't protect the pills from being crushed. I was unable to find them packaged another way. My understanding is the packaging is to protect the pills from exposure to moisture. Would it work to put several of the pills in a watertight/airtight bottle with a dessicant pack?
Thanks

I use these tablets as well. Is the bottle going to weigh less than the foil? If it stays in the foil and crumbles at least you can guarantee a proper dose of it in powder form, while if it crumbles (maybe from moisture or jarring around in your pack), you will be unable to get an accurate dose. Also the foil seems to be the more space saving size-wise?

Actually the foil takes up more space. The bottle I'm planning on is tiny, maybe an inch long by 3/8th in diameter.

What about cutting around the tablets and stacking them in the bottle still in the foil?

I've not tried chlorine tablets in bottles, but vitamin C tablets I've had in a bottle don't go so well. The knocking about reduces the tablet edges. Lots of powder produced. Happens in glass or plastic bottles. Not a problem for vitamins, but could be a problem for dosage on chlorine?

Put either open cell foam or synthetic cotton ball in the bottle to hold the pills/tablets from moving - just like the commercial manufacturers use.

Carry an small extra piece of foam to take up space as the tablets are depleted.


BTW, be sure you ONLY unwrap and bottle what you will use in one trip. The foil wrapping is there to keep out oxygen so the chemicals don't degrade over time. Plain plastic wrap will NOT keep out O2, which is why the better freeze-dried food companies wrap everything in a foil laminate.

Edited by Danepacker on 04/28/2012 16:35:11 MDT.

They break down rather quickly. So don't plan on keeping them for long. They break down in their foil wrappers as well - hard to keep them lying around for more than a year.