Q. I work in a nursery where we soak our bottles in a bleach/water solution after washing them with soap, as per the instructions on the bleach container. What I would like to know is how long can this bleach solution continue to be used before it's too degraded?

A. Always a great idea to sanitize baby bottles between uses. Here's the recommended procedure from our EPA Master Label for Clorox® Regular-Bleach.

As for the "how long" question, it depends, and to be sure one would need to analyze the solution which is more difficult than you want. If the bottle are clean, and the water is warm/cool, then the sodium hypochlorite active degradation should be relatively slow.

If you are doing a large number, I would replace the solution twice daily. If not, then at least daily. Since it's only 1 tspn/gallon, that shouldn't be too hard or expensive to do.