Milton sterilizing fluid is produced by

Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...

for sterilization uses. It contains (NaClO) and (NaCl; common salt). is used to sterilise babies' feeding utensils, including

baby bottles A baby bottle, nursing bottle, or feeding bottle is a bottle with a ''teat'' (also called a ''nipple'' in the US) attached to it, which creates the ability to drink via suckling. It is typically used by infants and young children, or if someone ...

. It is sold in dissolvable tablets which are then mixed with cold water and placed in a lidded bucket. This method of bottle sterilization is marketed as "The Milton Method". A is isotonic with body fluids. is used for wound management applications; this contains 0.25% (w/v) available

chlorine Chlorine is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Cl and atomic number 17. The second-lightest of the halogens, it appears between fluorine and bromine in the periodic table and its properties are mostly intermediate between ...

and has a . The fluid has been used in

endodontics Endodontics () is the Specialty (dentistry), dental specialty concerned with the study and treatment of the dental pulp. Overview Endodontics encompasses the study (practice) of the basic and clinical sciences of normal dental pulp, the etiolo ...

, for example to irrigate an infected

root canal A root canal is the naturally occurring anatomic space within the root of a tooth. It consists of the pulp chamber (within the coronal part of the tooth), the main canal(s), and more intricate anatomical branches that may connect the root c ...

, although it is not medically licensed for use in the mouth. __TOC__

History

The product and company began in Britain in 1916 and were named after the poet

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...

as a "safe" household name. During the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

the fluid was used on the front to treat burns and skin conditions. In 1947 a widespread outbreak of

gastroenteritis Gastroenteritis, also known as infectious diarrhea, is an inflammation of the Human gastrointestinal tract, gastrointestinal tract including the stomach and intestine. Symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, and abdominal pain. Fever, lack of ...

in the UK caused the death of 4,500 children under the age of one. Many of these were in hospitals where the repeated sterilisation of glass baby bottles containing a small residue of milk by boiling them had resulted in invisible deposits of "milk stone"; these provided a medium for the growth of harmful bacteria.{{cn, date=August 2022 This outbreak led to a national objective of finding an alternative to sterilising milk bottles by boiling, and Milton fluid was the

antiseptic An antiseptic ( and ) is an antimicrobial substance or compound that is applied to living tissue to reduce the possibility of sepsis, infection, or putrefaction. Antiseptics are generally distinguished from ''antibiotics'' by the latter's abil ...

advocated by hospitals and government agencies. The cold water method was generally available and simple for all to use, and virtually all mothers adopted this method.

References

Antiseptics Medical hygiene Disinfectants Hygiene